Do the Right Something

I want to do the right things. Things like being nice, buying local and helping the poor. I want to recycle everything that should be recycled. I want to bake homemade cookies for my kids to take to school. Rather, I buy them at the bakery section of my local grocery store hoping, if I put them on a pretty plate, that everyone will think they are homemade. I want to drive a Prius and grow vegetables in my garden. I want to save, not spend. I want to eat better and laugh more. 

Instead, I do some of the right things some of the time. On most days, I am okay with that. I tell myself, “You are a working mom” and “You do the best you can.” But then I meet someone that is doing everything I aspire to do - plus, they are making their own clothes, canning food for the winter months, writing a book and hiking across America to raise money for some charity I didn’t know existed. Many adjectives spring to mind to describe these amazing individuals. Most of which are not appropriate to print.

People like this often inspire me to improve upon one or more of the aforementioned items. Or, depending on my hormone level at the time, I want to slap them across the face and say, “Hey! Cool your jets, honey. You are making the rest of us (or at least me) look bad.” 

In truth, I think I do a lot of things right. My kids say please and thank you (except when they forget).  I smile at strangers. I hold the door open for people and offer to return shopping carts to the cart corral for the elderly. I read bedtime stories to my kids. I vote. I recycle (most of the time). I buy local (some of the time). These things are easy for me. And, that is the problem that I have with myself. I don’t challenge myself to do better. I convince myself that what I am already doing is enough. It’s not.

So, what am I going to do about it? I can tell you what I am not going to do. I am not going to try and do it all. I am, however, going to challenge myself with one or two new things. I think it will be easier to implement these changes in my life if the entire family gets involved. So, although they don’t know it yet, they are getting on this “ship of change." (A phrase and managerial style I owe to my days in corporate America). I might let them have a vote in the process. I am not sure yet. It doesn’t matter because (starting tomorrow) we are all trying something new.