By Anita Garne
I love routine. Embrace it. Find it invigorating. Routine enables us to accomplish new things because we know we can return to stand on the smooth and relatively splinter-free platform of the everyday, emboldened by the foundation we’ve built.
All new experiences aren’t better than the old ones. Just because we decline to try a new thing, that doesn’t always mean we’re afraid to shake up our routine. Sometimes it simply means the invitation isn’t that interesting.
There’s nothing wrong with preferring certain companions, specific kinds of mattresses, chairs, coffee and food. These are often the only things I can control for weeks at a time, so I’ve learned to count each choice a small victory. My routine gives me the freedom to feel most like myself.
In this way I’m very like my granddaughter, who at three-and-a-half, embraces every detail of her daily routine and reminds anyone who forgets.
When I leave my own comfort zone in order to have a different experience, it’s a blessing to know the familiar waits for my return. Sometimes the new works out, sometimes not.
The real enemy, of course, is the fear of change.
The very young ones haven’t learned that part yet. They’ll try anything. We supervise them closely, because in their quest for new experiences, they’ll jump too high and land on an unfriendly surface.
Somewhere in the middle is the hoped-for balance.
Ó Anita Garner
I agree with you entirely. Change is frightening and yet compelling. What to do? What to do?
It’s life’s endless dilemma of choices weighed against the risks, isn’t it? I remember writing these words when I was merely a high school sophomore:
I wish I was famous, I wish I was rich; I wish I could sing.
I wish I didn’t wish anything.