Saturday, December 10, 2016

Layers and Layers

12/7/16

#keepcalmWRITEon Day 7


Today was the first snow of the year.

If you know me, you know I love the show "Gilmore Girls".
As in -- eat, sleep, and breathe it.
For those if you not familiar.... in the show, the main character, Lorelai, loves the snow. Adores snow. She has at least two monologues about her relationship with the fluffy white stuff over the course of the show. She says, "The world is magical when it snows...the whole world changes color."
I am a desert rat, living in Kansas.
I used to say "stuck in Kansas" but I've changed my tune because, well, e'rybody got choices. I no longer feel stuck but rather, at home. But that's a story for another time.
I can't handle the cold. I wore two layers of under armour today, beneath a hoodie, beneath my work polo, beneath a coat. With ear warmers. And I still whined a little.
At my job, you have to be prepared for anything: kids could run away out in this cold, and we have to chase them! Better be prepared for the worst of conditions!
And yet, after I returned from just such an excursion this evening, I found all my layers of preparation working AGAINST me----I was sweating through my clothes and feeling so uncomfortable. I had to sit with my jeans rolled up to my knees at the desk while I completed my end-of-night paperwork, exposing my patterned tights to anyone who walked through the nurse's station. (My legs can't get cold, either!)
So this all got me thinking---even our most earnest methods of preparation can harm us in the end. Even when we think that we think of everything ----- there will be curveballs. We should always prepare to get a little uncomfortable, because there are always two sides to every coin.
Isn't it so interesting that the same things that can protect us from some elements, can very well expose us to others? I wonder what other areas of our lives this concept applies to.
I won't stop wearing my crazy layers anytime soon--- but I think I will start paying more attention to those things disguised as lifesavers, when in all actuality they might be weighing me down.
Sink or swim, friends.

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