Every morning before dispensing my supplements, I wash my hands. I’ve rubbed our cat’s belly, given the dog a good scratching all over to help her wake up. Maybe I’ve cleaned the litter box. Often, just as I am about to wash my hands, Bernd is ready for our good-bye kiss ritual and wants me to hurry up because he has to go to work. But there I am, waiting for the hot water.
I can’t seem to wash my hands with the cold water that precedes the hot. I don’t feel right until my hands have been warmed by some nice hot water. That it is currently winter and we keep our house at around 65° might have something to do with it. But I do the same thing in the summer.
I have a bit of Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder. It’s not as bad as Adrian Monk’s from the television program “Monk,” but I do have some things in common with the character. Just not the fear of germs that he has … despite the hand washing. But I do tend to count repetitious things and there are just some items that beg to be touched. Really.
Hot water on my hands in the morning is all about feeling “right.” And that’s a fairly easy thing to parse out. When my hands are warm, the rest of me feels warm too. When I put my hands into cold water, I shiver all over. So I wait for the hot water.
I have waited for other things in order to feel good as well. But many of them are less tangible and much harder to figure out. Usually, the realization comes well after it would have done me any good. That’s when I slap myself upside of my head and say, “I could have had a V-8.”
A lot of people equate feeling good or feeling right with happiness. I’m going to say this just once. It is not possible to be happy all the of the time. And the expectation that you should be happy all of the time can be a major source of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. So just dump that expectation. I know. It’s not nearly as easily done as said.
But how many times have you found yourself thinking you could be happy if you had a little more money? Or a new car? Or if you lost ten pounds? Or if you were a little smarter. Or if you were married? Or if you had kids? Or didn’t have kids? Or a little more time. Or maybe it’s not even as concrete as any of that. Maybe you hunger for something more and do not know what that something more might be and you are waiting for it to just fall from the sky.
So … are you waiting for the hot water? And the next time you find yourself waiting for something, ask yourself why. And then maybe get off your back side and go get it. There’s never a better time than the present.
Maddie's Mom Writes 