It's Warm

We like to be comfortable. We also expect to dictate how we want to have our comfort. We become annoyed when our comfort is compromised. Many an American has been appalled at what other countries (even European nations) consider a 3-star hotel. Americans, at least a good number of us, aren’t real good about sharing a small bathroom down the hall with strangers.

My Grandma Esther had a number of sayings that I look upon as sage wisdom. Before she became a Christian she had a mouth on her that could make a sailor blush. Even after her conversion she was known to “let loose” on occasions that particularly got her goat.

I remember a time when she said she felt like she was up to her neck in horse manure, though Grandma had a more colorful way of describing said item, which I choose to leave out of this blog – though I’m sure you get the picture. She said that “after a while you get used to the smell and at least it’s warm.”

(I do hope you’re not eating...) Grandma was a loving, giving individual, but she was also satisfied with putting up with situations in her life, which often became the topic of her woes and allowed her to wear the mantle of a “good Christian martyr.”

When the initial reaction to this rather gross analogy wears off you may see the wisdom in her thoughts. You may not be in a situation you find pleasant, but the truth is you may find it comfortable because it’s familiar. Maybe it’s a job or a relationship. It’s not ideal, it might even be abusive in some way, but it’s what you know. Change can be scary at times. Sometimes we can be so afraid of what will await us on the other side of change that we stay stuck in the crap (pun intended) we are in.

Like whipped cream on garbage (looks pretty on the outside until the whipped cream starts to sour), it’s still not a pleasant situation and probably not anything we would want for another person. Yet we put up with some of these distasteful situations in our own lives.

There are other ways to be comfortable. Being surrounded with nurturing companions is one way. Working in a job or career we love is another way. We might decide real comfort is relaxing in a warm bubble bath or Jacuzzi. In our lives we can choose the tubs we wish to enter and fill them with what we determine will warm us. When given the option, which we are, I’m leaning toward a more bubble bath-type experience for my life than what Grandma Esther described. What about you?

In Spirit, Truth and Playfulness,

Terry