Oh wow. Blogger has changed its layout since I last blogged. Interesting. That must mean I'm not blogging enough.
Well, I guess I really just felt the need to share with anyone who might be out there the things I've learned in the past few months.
I've learned quite a lot, so buckle up.
The first thing I've learned is that things don't get done if you don't do them.
Now, that might seem like a simple concept to you. Of course things won't get done if you don't do them. Things don't do themselves!
But I've been pretending for so long that they would. I say to myself 'I don't know who is going to clean out that attic, but it's not my job! It will get done eventually.'.
But here it is, three years later, and it's not done.
At first it was confusing 'wait, it's still not done?', but then I realized that how could it have gotten done when I did not do it?
So I did.
For the past few months, everyone around the house has been more or less just existing. Dishes were done by whoever got fed up with the piles of filth first, and everything else was accomplished in more or less the same way.
But about two months ago, I decided it was enough.
'Is this the way my home should look?' I asked myself.
'NO!!' was the fervent reply.
So I started cleaning. Not just straightening. Cleaning. As in: even the 'junk drawers' were organized and sparkling.
I decided that I was going to take charge of my house, and I did. I started telling my siblings that their rooms needed to be cleaned, or I would clean them with trash bags. As un happy as they were with it at first, guess whose rooms are clean now?
That's right. Everybody's.
The second lesson I started learning was pride.
And not in the 'I'm better than you' kind of way, but in the 'I am not ashamed' kind of way.
The more I cleaned, the happier I was with not only my home, but with myself. I am so happy that I have been strong enough to take charge of the situation, and patient enough to see it through to the end. I've been able not only to get my house clean, but to keep it that way. By setting a good example, and by consistently keeping up with any untidiness, I've been able to maintain a house that I can proudly call my home.
Yet another lesson I've learned is that sometimes, things don't work out, and it's okay. When a gal is on a empowering cleaning streak, she tends to let her head swell just a bit.
Okay, okay, I got to the point where my pride spilled over from the 'not being ashamed' type to the 'better than you' type. But don't worry. The universe quickly put me in my place.
But I'm going to try to explain this lesson without explaining the situation that lead to it. Sorry if that's too vague, but I don't want to go into so much detail. My friends and family are tired of hearing me talk about about the situation as it is.
Let me just say that something didn't work out. And I got angry. But I quickly realized that anger will not make the situation work out the way I would like it to. Neither would pointing fingers and playing the blame game. Yes, it is easy to get angry. Yes, sometimes, it might feel nice to have someone to blame for things not working out.
But the bottom line is, not everything will work out the way you'd like it to. Instead of crying about it or yelling about it, maybe you should just accept the fact that there is nothing you can do to change it.
Just let go of the need to control every situation.
Sometimes, the best thing to do when nothing will make a situation better is just that- nothing.
Just move on. In the end, you're still alive and healthy and there are plenty of other things you can do with your life. So pick one and move on.
To learn all of these things in such a short amount of time was so overwhelming. It was frustrating at times, too, but the lessons that are worth learning are never easy to learn.
But they're always worth it.
