I’m sitting on the chaise in my favorite spot, Doug sitting to my right on the couch and my son pacing the floor.  X-files is on the TV, laptop on my lap, TV trays out with our dessert plates and drink cups on them.  I’ve been struggling with something to write tonight as I haven’t done a whole lot this weekend.  It’s been really lazy around here, to the point where we even tried out grocery delivery.  That’s something I could maybe get used to.  We did the usual weekend cleaning and washing clothes yesterday but then we did nothing but watch Star Wars and X-files.  Things we have done over and over again.  The height of predictability.

What does your week look like?  Are you doing the same things on the same days and times?  There is something to be said about organized schedules and habits and the security and continuity they bring to our lives, but at what point does it become a rut? It takes effort to make a change in our routines and as busy as we are, it’s just easier to keep doing what we always do. Even if they’re unhealthy or unsafe.

So many times our schedules are driven by others.  Perhaps you have to run kids to sports or music practices, you have to arrive at your job at the same time everyday, you have meetings or exercise classes to get to each week.  Maybe you feel like you don’t have room for something new and different.  The problem with filling up your days with things, even good things, is that you don’t have room for change, and life without change can stifle us.

So imagine what this kind of schedule does to a school aged child.  They are already stuck in an inflexible schedule at school where they are told when to change classes, when to eat and when to go to the bathroom.  Then they get picked up from school and go to any number of gymnastic, dance, soccer, piano, practices/rehearsals, sometimes throwing down dinner from a drive-thru and getting to bed late.  Recess at school has all but been eliminated and then as parents, we again take away free time to get them in every possible organized activity known to man.  When do they have time for free play and creativity?  It’s the same thing we could ask of ourselves – when do WE have time for free play and creativity?

Is it selfish to want to do something fun, different and creative for ourselves? Numerous sources tell us that if we take care of ourselves first that we’re much better equipped to take care of others.  But how many of us stretch ourselves to the limit, doing the same predictable things over and over again and feeling ourselves getting lost?  Or we’re just so tired that we stay with the predictable just because we’re too tired to do anything else.  It can be a crazy cycle.

Doug will be out of town for a few days this week and that’s where I really get set in predictability.  I’ll go to school, grabbing breakfast on the way, stay for any meetings, go home, straighten up, make dinner (or pick something up) and sit on the chaise thinking of something to write or trying to catch up on work I need to do.  All it would take would be just changing or adding one new thing to get me out of the the predictability rut.  How about you?  Are you willing to fight predictability with me?