Airline Tickets, Tang, Truth and Sugar Plum Fairies!

The results of my test in mindfulness are good.  Although, Damn!  It was quite a day!  Only five of the eleven items on my list got checked off, but as three involved scrubbing my floor, I'm feeling okay that was left undone.  My daughter ended up calling me about the ticket, but she was sick and feeling really run down.  Even though she's 24 now, it's still hard to be so far away when your child feels bad.  I want to wrap my arms around her, make her some warm soup and put her in bed with an old movie.  But I was mindful of the fact that she needed to book her ticket and get back to work, so I offered comforting words, promised to send meds overnight and left my agenda out of her travel plans.  (I always plead for more time, she gets irritated but gives in-this time, she chose more time herself!  Yay!)  

Then the washing machine repairman!  He told me I needed to put a jar of Tang in it to clean out the build-up from liquid detergent and that I was washing my clothes incorrectly.  He said that in a front load machine you can only wash like things together--as in, all cotton-no polyester, sheets-but not with towels, jeans-but not with socks!  Cotton T's--but not with knit sweaters.  What?!  Everything needs to be the same weight and fabric content?  Long pause...be present, be mindful of what you really want to say here...WHHHHAAAATTTTT?  ARE YOU CRAZY!!!! ...I didn't do it.  I calmly asked him if I understood him correctly, that a jar of Tang and balanced and like fabric, would stop my machine from sounding like it was loaded with rocks?  And then I asked him to visit with me a little longer, until the spin cycle really got going!  Guess what?  When the artillery started exploding, he agreed that I had a bigger problem, asked for his $79 and declared my washer unrepairable, but usable, until the inner drum wears a hole in the outer drum and floods my laundry room.  I should see a leak before it fully bursts, so in the present, Christmas-time moment, I'm going with it.  I'll find the I-Pod during the spin cycle.

For the final "living in the moment" bit of the day, I decided to tell the truth when my husband asked how my day was going.  Well, let's just say when you answer that question honestly and you continue to answer the questions that follow honestly, shit comes out!  My husband and I don't argue often (1-2 times a year) but when we do, we don't do it well.  We are usually fighting for exactly the same thing but we say things so completely differently, that we end up arguing about the way we are arguing, and lose our train of thought.  BUT NOT THIS TIME!  Or at least not the whole time!  I kept telling myself, "don't bring up the past, don't be worrying about the future, stay right here in this moment- of what you need to say and what you need heard, listen to what he is saying, hear him!"  It worked.  It was ugly, but there was really a lot of stuff that was going unsaid that needed to be worked out.  It was not easy and it was not fun, but it was productive.  Turns out that the same things that were bothering me, were bothering him.  Now we are on the same page.  Nice.

I will continue my foray into mindfulness.  It should be interesting to see how it works backstage at the Nutcracker.  I become stage mom at 2:30 this afternoon, and will not be released from my duties until we have finished two dress rehearsals, four school performances, two actual full productions, a champagne reception and a Sugar Plum Fairy luncheon Sunday afternoon.  There will be quick changes, nerves, drama, injuries and pure joy!  I plan to be mindful and present in every single glorious moment of it!