Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Letting my hair grow and other tedious life processes

I’m letting my hair grow. Some days it is too short for my liking, and some days it is too long…occasionally there are Baby Bear days when it is just right.

Generally, I like what it is becoming. But it is a process, and as such, is tedious and uncomfortable - and promising.

We don’t much like processes, do we?

We want the meal-in-a-minute, the one-stop shop, the drive-through break-through. We don’t want to “go through” anything.

It’s easier that way. Easier to sit on the couch, grab whatever is available to eat, ignore food labels. Easier to buy whatever we want right now, move the balance from one card to another, borrow against tomorrow’s prosperity. Easier to give up on relationships, to blame other people, refuse to resolve.

We like “easy” more than “hard”…at least, we think we do.

Then one day, we find that sow = reap. It always does, you know...an immutable law of nature, the Universe, and God.

We find that “easy” sows shallow seeds that yield lousy crops, that “easy” misses many opportunities because it has no resources at the necessary time, that “easy” turns into ”lonely” when we find no one is quite as perfect as we are.

Show of hands: who likes processes? Who likes to regularly put energy into buying and preparing healthy food? Get up at 5am to exercise? Who likes to see the CUTEST pair of shoes but resist the credit card and stick to the budget? No hands yet, are there?

Who likes to go through a tunnel of chaos in a relationship? You know, those days/weeks/months where everything is confusing and you have no idea where the road is going? When you can’t stand to see your friend/sister/duaghter/partner’s face? When you would rather quit than cry one more time? Still no waving hands - but maybe a knowing nod from a few heads.

I’m letting my hair grow.

It’s a process I am choosing to trust. Maybe you have a process you need to trust as well.

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