Rolling Marbles and Sliding Tiles, Part Two

So much for the Rolling Marbles part. How ‘bout the Sliding Tiles?

You know those kids’ games where you’ve got a bunch of tiles fitted into a flat framed surface, and you have to move them all around until you succeed in making the picture? Each time my kids play the “Finding Nemo” game and come to one of the sliding tiles puzzles, they beg me to solve it for them. I always manage to do it. But, the funny thing is, I can’t for the life of me figure out HOW I do it. I can’t “logic” my way to a solution, I just have to sit there and slide the tiles around until they all, suddenly, inexplicably, fall into place. Thank goodness my life is a bit more logical.

Recently hubby and I got a bug in our mutual bonnet and decided to rearrange the house. It was sort a wholesale redefinition of spaces and redistribution of furniture to accommodate said redefinition. As we were mentally working through how we were going to manage this feat, he said, “It’s like a Chinese puzzle.” Or, a sliding tiles game. Each move must be made in the proper order, everything will be sort of jumbled for a bit, until, suddenly, each room will be a comfortable, orderly, peacefully balanced space fulfilling its destined purpose. At least for a few months.

Our Sliding Tiles looked something like this: move all three kids into the old master bedroom, move the downstairs study into two upstairs studies, move the entertainment/media room from the basement into the living room, move all of the kids’ toys and projects into the basement, move the shelves from the pantry into the basement and build new shelves in the pantry, rearrange the dinette sans desk to make it more comfortable, and rearrange the family room to accommodate the Christmas tree. Of course, the devil is in the details, and there were, and still are, a hundred details to this rearrangement. We should be finished sometime next year.

So, what is the ultimate picture that is magically dropping into place? Well, aside from having each room fulfill its own purpose in a more comfortable manner, and a sense of overall peace and balance to the house itself, now, almost magically, there is a space for the kids’ Nana to come and stay with us as she recovers from surgery. There is now a spot in the new living room for a hospital bed where she can sleep and rest, on the first floor so she doesn’t have to negotiate the stairs, where she can have the kids sit and watch movies with her and visit when she wants, where she’s central enough to be checked on regularly and looked after as needed. Just a short walk to the powder room, the kitchen, and to the dining room. There’s even space for her dog. Papa Bear and I are both very impressed with ourselves at being so clever.

On to Part Three....

Rolling Marbles and Sliding Tiles, Part One

As Mimi and I were walking together recently on one of our infrequent but treasured “us getting healthy” walks in the park, I was rambling on about the list of new habits I’ve been instituting, and ever so slightly whining that my new chiropractor seems intent on adding to the list. I said (with appropriate nasal accent), “If I try to add one more new habit right now, all my marbles are going to start rolling off my plate.”

I’ve decided that new habits are kind of like that WiiFit game you play on the balance board where there’s a semi-flat surface suspended in space with a marble on it, and you have to maneuver the marble across the surface and drop it into a hole by shifting your weight on the balance board. Like injecting a new habit into the larger context of your life, you have to focus enough attention on the marble you’re maneuvering, while at the same time remaining aware of the surface itself. Once you plop the marble into the hole, you don’t have to worry about it anymore, because it’s pretty much been incorporated into your universe.

But, the thing about this game is, each time you get the marble in the hole, a new surface appears in space, and one more marble is added. Now, you’ve got two marbles to maneuver on a slightly different surface, two marbles you’ve got to plop into the hole or holes. While you’re working on marble #1, you’ve got to be aware enough of marble #2 that you don’t let it fall off the edge of the surface and into oblivion. And, of course, once you’ve mastered two marbles, then there are three marbles, and a different surface. Then four marbles. Then five. Then six. You get the picture. Starting to sound like your life? It sure sounds like mine. Only thing is, I don’t seem to ever have just one marble at a time; they usually come in bunches.

My current bunch of marbles looks something like this: walking six days a week, taking vitamins and supplements twice a day, wearing trifocals all the time, wearing shoes with support all the time, seeing the chiropractor weekly, sleeping with a cervical pillow, baking bread instead of buying it, and posting to my grandmother’s blog daily.

They say it takes about 8-10 weeks for a habit to really become part of your lifestyle. It’s been about two months since I started the walking and vitamins, and the rest have fallen in line pretty easily. The next bunch of marbles is shaping up to look something like this: drinking more water, strength training at the Y twice a week, postural balancing exercises daily, Kegel exercises, and adjusting Brother Bear’s braces every day.

So far, all my marbles are staying on my plate, and a few have even plopped.

Stay tuned for Part Two...