What’s Your Calgon?

Dear Yogis,

Last week was LOOOOOOONG.

My kids were on vacation without travel plans. So we had a "staycation," which always sounds so much better in my mind than it proves to be.

With no routine, teenagers sleeping in and staying up later, needing to be driven and picked up at different times in the same places, or, the reverse (at the same times in different places), I felt like a 24/7 chauffeur, maid, chef, and therapist.

I could feel myself getting crankier and less patient with each passing day. I wouldn't say I liked it. By the weekend, I didn't even like myself.

Those of you of a certain age may remember the 70s commercial for Calgon, a brand of a bubble bath, which portrayed a housewife amidst the chaos of kids fighting, dogs barking, doorbells ringing, and all the demands pulling her in different directions. In each version, the woman would look directly into the camera and yell, "Calgon, take me away!" The next shot would be her in the tub, bubbles all around her, not a care in the world.

When I was a young mother, I remember hearing the advice, "If you have a crab, put them in water." So basically, if your baby was fussy, put them in the bathtub. If your kids were older, you could use a pool. The thing is, it worked every time.

So maybe Calgon wasn't the magic bullet; the bathtub was. Or perhaps it is the healing power of water.

For me, by Saturday, fed up with the endless amount of chores made harder by both the absence of Eric all week and the blizzard dumping snow on us, I was fit to be tied.

Then, as I headed out to do evening chores, the fantastic beauty of the approaching sunset, the stillness and glistening snow on the hill, and the crispness of the air struck me.

At that moment, I knew what I had to do, and it wasn't mucking or feeding. I needed to take back my day, my week, my SELF.

I grabbed our vintage toboggan (sled) and my dog, Chester, and we ventured out past the fence to ideally sloping snow-covered hayfields.

My whole mood and mindset did a 180º in the 30 seconds it took me to speed down my first sled run. I didn't even care that I went blazing through a patch of thorns and almost hit a giant tree stump. I WAS BACK, BABY! Laughing out loud, I dragged the sled back up the hill and sped back down again and again. I went further and faster.

What a lesson for me. In feeling that I was so busy and didn't have time for myself, I had lost myself.

My sled was my Calgon bath--it took me away from my grumpy self. It was my chariot bringing me back to ME.

Despite diligent contemplative practices, if we are entirely forthcoming, we all have these moments of being overwhelmed by any manner of circumstances. We get locked into a spiral. However, there is a key to unlocking this state of mind. Mine was breaking out of my routine and just having some fun. The lesson for me is when you are nurturing children 24/7, take the time to take care of the child in you. Love yourself and, importantly, develop and make the time for routines that protect your inner child from stress.

Thank you, Universe---for not having a snow day today. :-)

With so much love,

Kari