excuses. excuses.

so i came across this interview with mark bittman. (chef, author, big time foodie)

isn't that great!

i have always wanted a true chef's kitchen. yet i have always maintained that anyone truly interested in food or cooking or eating can create a feast in a closet if need be.

and some people just have to.

and i have. actually i've created some pretty great food in some pretty not so great circumstances.

my current kitchen isn't bad. nor is it fabulous. but night after night i prepare healthy delicious meals for my family. season after season i create gourmet meals, birthday parties, and holiday dinners in that kitchen.

i don't just throw up my hands and say well, when i get a nicer kitchen then i'll cook! chiefly because i have a family to feed and that kind of attitude won't do. but also because i love to cook. i love food. and fancy kitchen or no, i need to create in the kitchen i have.

i want the perfect kitchen and one day i will have the perfect kitchen, but in the meantime the kitchen i have is the one i have and it works and thus i make the kitchen i have work.

and hey, if mark bittman can be who he is in the kitchen he has then i don't have a leg of lamb with a rosemary and fleur de sel crust to stand on.

so.

let's take that and apply it liberally to the other areas of life, shall we?

this morning dawned bleak and cold and icy. just like every other morning before it has for weeks.

only what's special about this morning is this is the first morning in a month that i am actually well and able enough to go to yoga. i was looking forward to it...last night.

but this morning came and it was cold and i was bone tired and my favorite kitty was snuggled and purring beside me and i knew it was icy on the roads and the lord of the ring was sick and asleep (finally!) on the couch and i didn't want to wake him by going downstairs and if i got up wingman would get up and he needs more sleep to combat his (finally) dwindling cold and if he got up and i had to leave and the lord of the ring was asleep then he'd be alone downstairs and the house was cold and on and on and on.

enough to stay in bed snuggling with the kitty and eventually wingman who stumbled in, keeping warm and letting the lord of the ring continue to sleep in a quiet house.

so. i. did.

sure those excuses were valid. to us, excuses always are "valid." that's why they are so popular.

but, what does that do for this body that needs daily exercise for mental and physical health? how many excuses can this body accept?

so i stayed in bed until it was time to get up.

BUT while it's not ideal or fun to not have the space or facilities and to have an audience, as soon as i had water and a snack i did a shortened yoga workout in front of the t.v.

on the carpet with the cats dashing at me and trying to drink my water and the boybarians pulled up front and center offering critiques.

and it wasn't the best workout and it was shorter than normal and certainly not as fulfilling as warming up, working out, then doing constructive rest like in my class, BUT i did it.

i worked out and made it work.

if we wait for conditions to be right/perfect/ideal to take charge of our lives/have fun/do what needs doing then we're all just going to be stuck. and in my case stuck with higher blood pressure and an even wider ass.

i need to exercise to stay healthy. i want to exercise to feel good. making excuses not to is just dumb. even if they're "valid." because there's always another choice, an alternative. we just have to be committed to finding it. as committed as we are to finding excuses not to.

what do you need to do? and what is the "valid excuse" holding you back from doing it?

i know i already went, but in the spirit of commuinty here, i'll go first! again!

i DESPERATELY NEED to paint my dining room and kitchen ceilings!!! good lord i need to. it's really not even a want anymore. i simply cannot make it "work" for me anymore.

and yet...here we go...but they have contact paper on them (i know. don't ask. i certainly didn't ask the big of WTF?!?when we bought the place and have proceeded to ignore the whole situation for a decade) and they are so high and i shouldn't paint them until we get new light fixtures (desperately needed as well) for them. and there's more but i'm forgetting what.

BUT

i already have the paint and the ladder and i can carve out the time. and we haven't gotten new lighting fixtures for a decade so how is that even an issue anymore? there really is a statute of limitations on excuses. believe it. plus, i can just paint around the new installations when that happens.

so what am i waiting for? more excuses? why am i not waiting for the opportunity to pretty up my living space because the situation is desperate at this point? why i am not waiting for the opportunity to bask in a job (hopefully) well done, and more importantly finished?

indeed.

the point is when we need to, or want to, nothing we do to better ourselves our ceilings or our asses is ever a waste. right?

even if it's not the full body workout or the perfect down to every last detail decorating circumstance or a gourmet kitchen to die for, we can and SHOULD still do it.

a girl's gotta eat. and work off the eating. and do it all under charming and calming azure skies. or at least a really cute ceiling that doesn't look like it belongs in someone's flooded basement.

that's what i need. what do you need? and what are you going to do about it?

whatever it is and however it happens, just remember, even if it's a drop in the bucket, over time it all adds up and eventually you are bounty overflowing.

x.