I find sometimes I get my best ideas from reading others posts, blog or otherwise. This morning I read a blog post about balance and what works for this person. It spurred me to compose this blog and is kind of like point/counterpoint in its essence.We all have a balance we like to keep in our lives, for each of us it is different and what works for one might not for the next. Comparing my life to anyone else's life is a silly and futile exercise. I need to be comfortable in MY life, as YOU need to be comfortable in your life. I have often thought that one of the worst excuses for a sloppy house/life, whatever your surroundings are, is that raising your children is the most important thing and the housework can wait. While I do not disagree with this statement, we need to teach and model a good life for our offspring, helping them find their own individual balance. Part of life is giving children a solid basis for independent life and helping them function well in the "outside" world. My children had chores, and learned to cook, clean and do many basic things that are essential to a decent life. Setting personal boundaries within ones life is a task one needs to do for themselves.While the tidy/clean house should NOT be the most important thing in ones life, it needs to be a balanced part of a balanced life. If you can function and be essentially comfortable in a chaotic surrounding, then go for it. My personal need is orderly, and not as antiseptic as the younger, idealistic me wanted things. Three children, many pets and a single Mom life forced me to let down my OCD home standards to a more plausible level to keep up with. My children have become adults, only one living here with my life partner and myself, so it is three people living in a large and mostly organized space. My biggest mess makers are now my cats, they shed, make litter box dumping essential on a daily basis, and entertain me and comfort me often., as well as provide entertainment and a lot of laughs. I work forty hours a week, and am fortunate to have someone that does much of the cooking, and shares in the laundry and cleaning of our home. He makes sure that the laundry gets washed, I fold and put it away. We both clean the bathrooms, with him doing the floors.It is a partnership that works, we never had to outline any "rule" per se, it just happened. In a good relationship this is how I think it should work, sharing the tasks and each doing what they are best at. When so few of you reside in a place, if you just put things where they belong and do a minimal amount of upkeep, there is no reason for it to get out of hand, save illness and occurrences that prevent one from the basic maintenance of said domicile. I watch very little television, read only on occasion, I find such solitary past times to not entertain me or calm me at all. I play online games, would prefer board or card games with a few others, I keep abreast of the news via internet channels and contact friends mainly via text and emails. My eight hour work days is spent on the phone and computer dealing with inbound and outbound calls as well as alarms, so multi-tasking at work is a must. The same is true at home for the most part.I despise phone conversations, I would much prefer a chat over coffee or lunch, interpersonal connections flow much better in real life than in the world of phone lines. Many of my acquaintances are voracious readers, and they often are in disbelief that I do not do the same. I do not expect you to fit into my life guidelines, so do not judge me for not having the same system of life as you. As I said earlier in this missive, balance is a very personal thing, and we all need to set the knob where it works for us and our own individual situations.If things are not working the way YOU want them to, time to take stock of your balancing act and make changes if that will make things work better for your life. Balance is different for us all, find your own and run with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Balance In All Things~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
