A Beige Life

I am a great believer that people need to experience both the pleasant and bitter parts of life. I made a deliberate decision to let my son walk to school in the snow several times during the past week because I think that it's good to feel cold and wet. It's good because it's nice to be reminded how wonderful it is to feel your toes warming up again after being in the snow. It's good to realize that warmth is a blessing.

I was sick to my stomach two nights ago and extremely tired and dizzy and achy all day yesterday. I was, in a word, miserable. Today I felt completely rejuvenated and joyous. It felt so amazingly good to not be sick. If I hadn't been sick yesterday, I wouldn't have felt so happy and grateful today. My contentment with an improvement in health motivated me to achieve new levels of domesticity. (I actually washed the laundry and folded it in the same day. All this and a clean kitchen, vacuumed carpets and home-cooked dinner. My husband was dumbfounded.)

What would life be without the lows? The highs would just be mediocre bumps in the landscape of life, instead of soaring triumphs. Instead of vivid contrasts of light and dark, life would just be beige.

I admit that when life seems to be all dark, I would readily agree to a life of beige. That, however, would be extremely short-sighted. I don't want to live a beige life. I want to live a life filled with all the spectrums of circumstance: joy, pain, triumph, and sorrow. That's what makes life worth living. That's what makes life challenging and fulfilling. That's what pushes me to new levels of humanity and divinity, hopefully.

If your life starts feeling beige, go step out into the snow. Barefoot. Run around your yard barefoot, like I did with my nephew on New Year's Eve. Then go into your home and wrap your toes up in warmth and be grateful.