Inspired by this awesome post from my friend Swishygirl on life's simple pleasures, I decided to stick to this theme of passion for another day. Partly because it sounds sexy ("I'm blogging about passion today...") but more because it makes me happy. I'm captivated by a quote from THE HAPPINESS PROJECT, where Gretchen describes her realization that, "I was happier when I accepted my own real likes and dislikes, instead of trying to decide what I ought to like..."
Do you wrestle with this? Lately, whenever I read something that says EVERYONE should do this one thing to find fulfillment/save the planet/get in shape/live forever, I've noticed that about 88% of the time, it makes me want to crawl under the bed and hide. Not because the suggestions are bad...it's just that they feel bad for me. They're mostly things I don't want to do. (And don't even get me started on the slew of "What EVERY writer must do" advice. Yikes and Ugh.)
It makes me wonder: What if we're all different? What if part of why we're alive today is to discover how we're made, and one or two creative ways of operating optimally? Seeing the picture above makes me realize that we make choices about the "bricks" we use to build each day: are they things we really love, or things we feel we should love? Obviously, we can't change everything (teeth must be brushed, bills must be paid) but most of us can change a few things, right?
I'll start by coming clean: Here are A few things I should like, but don't: Grim, meaningful books and movies. Washing out the peanut butter jar to recycle. Composting. Crocs. Skinny jeans. Actors/Actresses who are kind of shmucky in their personal lives. Dentistry. Flying. Poetry.
But more importantly, here are a few things I totally love beyond all reason: Happy ending memoirs. Sandra Bullock movies. Ugg slippers. Flannel jammie pants. So You Think You Can Dance. Disco. Crosby, Stills & Nash. Treadmills. The ocean. That my niece has requested that I come to Maine and teach her how to do a cartwheel. The Ann Taylor Factory Store. Long drives. Twitter.
And...that I'll be having coffee with the awesome Gretchen Rubin tomorrow afternoon! I'm pretty excited about that :)
Do me a favor: help me believe it's not just me! What's on your list of things you should like but don't? What do you absolutely love??? Let's reconsider some of the bricks we're building with.
7 comments:
Goodness, Trish, I agree with your dislikes and don't appreciate feeling "guilty" about not liking them.
Enjoy THAT lunch tomorrow!
So glad to hear you love Sandra Bullock movies. While You Were Sleeping is my all-time favorite. Love memoir, too. I once went to a writing conference at which a number of writers clearly regarded memoir as the embarassing aunt in the writing basement. I think memoir matters because it's about each of our life stories mattering.
Other things I love: Earth, Wind, & Fire, Twizzlers, Smarties, and Cheese Curls (sometimes at the same time), getting my picture taken with Santa, looking at photo albums, hanging out with old people and listening to their stories, and floating in the pool on my raft with its cupholder. Especially if the cupholder is holding a (plastic) margarita glass.
Ditto on the skinny jeans - it's a trend I just can't get into.
And I love Sandra Bullock movies, too!
Hm, likes? Coffee. And chocolate, definitely. I agree with you on the peanut butter jar cleaning. The way I see it, it wastes too much of a natural resource (water) to warrant cleaning it!
I know I'm supposed to like tofu, hiking and mushrooms - I don't like any of those things. I'm also with you that I'm supposed to like really DEEP and MEANINGFUL books - that almost always are terribly depressing.
I do love a sappy romance with a happy ending (book or movie), hot fudge sundae over a brownie with whipped cream, snuggling with my boys (husband included) and the sound of rain on our roof.
This is hilarious.
I love "grim, meaningful books and movies", poetry, hiking, mushrooms, AND tofu. (though only when it's fried in enough oil to make it not a health food) I guess that's proves the point doesn't it? :)
Other things I love: walking the the snow, yoga, beans and nuts, reeeeeally bitter dark chocolate, water of any swimmable sort with little regard for temperature, sushi, popcorn, snuggling the hubby, cooking
Things I should like, but don't: most worship and praise music, high heels and make-up, sewing, picketing/protesting/political activism, sweet milk chocolate, ham, board and card games, kids
I'll have to give a little thought to my own list, but your list of things that you love made me cry (in a good way) :-).
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