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| Not yard of the month. |
Our subdivision just started a new program—“Yard of the
Month.” There’s a sign posted right at the entrance with the address of the
winning house. When I saw the sign, I realized immediately that we’ll never have “Yard of the Month.” Not
because we have an ugly yard, or a neglected yard—what we have is a yard that
doesn’t fit the image of what a subdivision’s “Yard of the Month” should look
like. We’ve left a good portion of our front yard in its natural state, except
for grass required by the subdivision in the portion of our yard between the
sidewalk and the street. This is our choice and our preference. I’m completely
fine with never winning “Yard of the Month.” There’s something very freeing about not buying into someone else’s ideal.
This got me thinking about other areas of life where I might
be buying into other people’s expectations: what I do (and don’t do) with my
horse, how clean (or dirty) my house is, and, most certainly, what I do (and
don’t do) as a parent. This last is particularly on my mind as we get ready to
send Nick out into the world. It didn’t take us long to realize our son is not
a fits-the-mold kind of kid. (But he was
“Student of the Month” one time—in first grade!) We’ve had to frequently
reexamine our expectations and choices to see if we were doing what was best for him or just what everyone else was
doing.
It’s a good practice to take inventory of all our activities
from time to time, asking ourselves why we do what we do. Because we really
want to, or because someone else thinks we should? It’s all too easy to buy
into someone else’s idea of happiness/fun/worth, without stopping to consider
what we actually think ourselves.
I’m still learning this lesson—as we probably all are. How
about you? Is there anything you’ve stopped doing after evaluating why you were
doing it? Anything you’ve started doing just because you want to?
