The Amazing Part

What is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.                                       --Anna Quindlen

Photo by Susan Gaissert

Ms. Quindlen is right. I've been dedicated to searching for myself for a while now, and mostly it feels like hard work, but today it feels much more amazing than difficult. Maybe the fact that it is truly summer, hot and breezy, is part of why I feel so good. I made myself an excellent breakfast this morning (brown rice with diced onion in olive oil), and then I washed the floor in the kitchen and the walls in the living room. I did the laundry, too. Cleanliness and water both make me happy.

Now that the afternoon is here, I have decided to get into my car, drive to the beach, and walk along the shore for about an hour. I will clean myself in the ocean water. Then I will drive back home and make dinner. Isn't it amazing that I have the privilege of doing that? Life will be hard again soon enough, and the floors and walls and clothes will get dirty again, but then it will be amazing again, too.