Today, my mind takes me back to this fine Saturday morning whereby as usual; I had some household business to attend to as any noble young man would. For good reason, I get to experience the sojourner feeling on occasion while in my parents’ house and this I believe is what instills that extra drive in me. Nevertheless, getting back to this Saturday morning, I realize now that I had a little feeling deep inside which I couldn’t really shake off and it’d left me rather edgy. I was on the brink of experiencing an off-day as I hit the nails to assemble this chick brooder while my mum engaged herself with other duties around the home. Self-awareness was indeed my ally on that day. Yes, indeed, I was able to work through this internal issue which had at that point posed a threat to my routine plan to have a peaceful day. I must say that it all worked out in a way that I find rather fascinating. How so?
As I shuffled between making the wood measurements and hitting the nails for sinews, I could sense my heart’s subtle efforts at failing me. This was mostly due to the fact that I had some other personal plans (to record some music or maybe make some kind of progress with one of my other personal projects) which had empatically lost the bid to this noble project of erecting a chick brooder which in this case would bring immediate common benefit to the whole household (I’m guessing this can simply be referred to as selfish ambition; which we all have by default, whether we demonstrate it or not). I mean, I could have easily made a drumstick out of one of my fingers (or maybe worse) had I let this inward conflict find its way to my brain and hands. Who, then, would have ended up having a stressful day?
Nevertheless, something peculiar was about to happen. It was triggered by the random cackling of chicken which began in isolation but progressed into an accord of characteristic “ba-gawk”, “ba-gawk” sound just when I had sensed the subtle edginess brewing inside me. At that moment, I was presented with two choices from which I could make one of two significant decisions: One; ignore the strangely, unnecessarily-noisome chicken or on the other hand; let the silly frustration kindle undue distress within my heart. Boy, with the handy tools I was working on, was I treading on egg shells!
Anyway, the course of action I ended up adopting was what the average adult would consider silly. I mean, my mum actually marvelled when I broke into hearty laughter in the midst of all that bird noise (Mark you, I find chicken being strangely, delightfully-harmless birds which can be a genuine source of occasional entertainment to the simple person). While I laughed off this potentially-repulsive chicken choral, I felt something wonderful happen within me as my prior frustration effortlessly vaporised, leaving me as a prime beneficiary of this simple life decision: the decision to find reason for laughter when dreadful human instincts are subtly setting you up for self-sabotage. I mean, my spirit felt an unheard-of calm when I chose in my heart to be the silly individual who finds random reason to laugh when those around me are equally-tensed to their own detriment. Can you relate? If not, I invite you to try this one out today. There’s no regret, I promise.
On the other hand, I perceived an insightful thought (not one of my usual thoughts) as I worked out this personal issue which I can perhaps reconstruct into this personal question: See, what were you trying to achieve with all that moodiness of yours? Does this apply to you in any way?.
To this end, I’ll tell you this: next time, laugh it all off when you feel agitated by someone or something else; especially when those around you are equally or almost equally-tensed. It’s a simple, effective way of working through the common stresses of this life. Stay blessed!
