Bubbles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Image courtesy of John A. Adam. (Thank you!)

You may have guessed that I have a "Type-A" personality. I like things to be predictable, in order, and in a bulleted list. When something throws off my perceived "way things should be", it does not rest well with me.

I don't regard this as "just my personality", because though it can be a valuable thing to have in the sense of self-discipline and getting things done, it can get in the way of other things that, by nature, are not predictable and cannot be orderly. There are some aspects of this that I make conscious efforts to change.

Sometimes (this is my little secret) I do spontaneous things that are (gasp!) not on my list!

The other day I was rinsing off dishes before I put them in the dishwasher. One pan required a lot of scrubbing, and I poured in some dish soap to help with the job. Well! I put in way too much dish soap, and the bubbles instantly rose to the rim of the pan and began spilling out into the sink. I dumped the pan's water and refilled it - more bubbles! I dumped the water again, and this time I set the pan aside, for now I had a whole sink full of thousands of bubbles. They made a Rice Krispies sound as they popped slowly, but showed no signs of going down the drain.

I had my list of cleaning tasks. I had my estimated time it would take to complete them. My schedule was planned out, and though it included "fun" things, the "fun" was preplanned and would not come until I had completed other items on my list, and rightly so!

I spent the next half hour running a little stream of water from the faucet, coaxing the bubbles down the drain. I moved the faucet around in order to "help" the bubbles in the right direction. I filled my palm with water and drizzled it over some of the heavier bubbled areas.

No doubt I could have simply left the sink full of bubbles and they would have popped on their own. During that time I could have accomplished three other items on my list. But here is where I can happily say my priorities changed. I decided I needed to have some spontanaeity, some "fun" that seemed fun to me and probably wouldn't to anyone else.

I felt like I had accomplished something significant when the last bubble slipped down the drain. I had a silly grin on my face. This was my secret little source of joy for the day. This was me being a little kid.

If you're normally a "bulleted list" person, do something spontaneous today! Be a kid! Stop and smell the roses because you can! Dance! Sing! Go on a bike ride! If you're feeling especially adventurous, go on a walk and skip! It's sunny here today, and that probably accounts for my good mood. And I am going to sit on the step outside and eat ice cream!