Creatures of Habit

I had a life-altering moment while spending the night at my mother's house some twenty years ago. It all innocently began with a question she asked me after I had put on my pajamas. She said, "Don't you take a shower at night?" I said, "No, I take my shower in the morning." She then said, "You mean you go to bed with the "dirt of the day?"

I allowed her profound words to slowly sink in, T -- h -- e -- -- d -- i -- r -- t -- -- o -- f -- -- t -- h -- e -- -- d -- a -- y -- Hmmmmmm -- .I had never thought of it that way. I could hardly believe that the dirt of the day and I had been bed partners every night for many years. This was an epiphany moment. Why, my mother was a bathing genius! I couldn't shake the image of all the dirt gathering I had done along the way each day -- all the places I'd been -- all the animals I'd touched. Ooh -- Yuk! Something had to change!

That was how my nightly ritual began some two decades ago. It has transformed into quite an elaborate process that involves mood setting with scented candles burning, soft music and big, giant foaming bubbles. The "dirt of the day" goes bye-bye down the drain. (until I collect more the next day, that is!)

Sir B. Brodie said, "We are but the creatures of circumstance." The term "creatures" sounds offensive in describing us mere mortals; however, I suppose we all are, in some form or another beasts of our own habits. We set up our own rituals and then we become their "slaves," as we fall prey to the idiosyncratic need for our routines. We mind our inner voice day after day not wanting to deviate from our order. I realized that there was even more of a morning creature of habit and the ritualistic habits during the time I was raising my sons.

My child-rearing days used to go a little something like this:
7:00- Turn off alarm clock.
7:01-Lie there for two minutes to recall what is on my agenda for the day.
7:04-I'm up for real.
7:06-A slight, gentle rap on my sons' doors to let them know that school will be in session once again with its great regularity.
7:11-The dog and the cat romp down the steps beside me as they eagerly await their food habit.
7:12- The cat stops long enough to do her ritual of scratching the stain off the chair rail on the steps. I say, "Stop it" every single morning.
7:13-Let the dog and the cat out to "do their morning thing."
7:16-Fix my ritualistic morning coke. While the fizz is going down, I put leftover dishes in the dishwasher. I turn around to see that I timed it perfectly once again and my morning coke is ready for consumption. Ahhh -- Now the day has officially begun.
7:25- Fix the dog and cat trough.
7:26- Let the animals back in to devour their breakfast.
7:28- Head back upstairs.
7:29- Knock on my sons' doors once again with a slightly harder rap, but with a gentle inflection in my tone as I say, "It's time to get up."
7:30- Beauty routine begins. Wash face. Slap on a modicum of whatever my hand touches first in my beauty basket of camouflaging and accentuating secrets.
7:35- The brief beautification process is over. I can remember the day when it was a painstakingly prolonged process. It's been chiseled down considerable since "life" and the other more important factors, besides my face, take precedence. I walk away now after five minutes, rather than thirty, thinking to myself, "Did I brush my hair? Oh, well, it'll get better throughout the day."
7:36- I notice my sons are still not up and I head to knock on their doors again. This time my tone was in the early stages of panic as I say, "It's really late now!"

As my sons and I walk out the door(at long last), all rituals are casually tossed aside. In its place is the helter skelter flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants day with multi-tasking at its finest.

And so -- yet another day of accumulating more "dirt of the day" begins for this creature of habit. But, ahhhh, the bubble bath that will be waiting for me and all that "dirt of the day" makes it all worthwhile...ahhhhhhhh.....