Being Comfortable

Threat or sanctuary?

It ebbs and flows over time.

Yet, it also manages to be a shape-shifting chameleon, changing identities within as little as a minute, hour or day.

Comfort.

It is the source of safety, security and relaxation.

That soothing feeling that everything is okay. The bedrock from which self-expression soars and honest communication thrives.

Without it, we would experience non-stop chaos. Stress and anxiety would abound. Risk be perceived everywhere.

AND yet, it is the source of complacency, consternation and craziness.

The innocuous, insidious weed with the power to strangle creativity, suffocate motivation and smother innovation. It fertilizes the ground for boredom, impatience and irritation.

At worst, it dampens the spirit and degrades into hopelessness.

So, HOW do you know, when you don’t know, whether to make a change?

There are, of course, different levels of change.

I have a bad habit of highly undervaluing the kind that simply requires finding a new way to work, a shift in salad dressing or hair color.

That being said, we DID just purchase a new ice cream maker.

We’ve made delicious all-natural varieties involving simple, wholesome ingredients. AND we are about to build a pergola and plant our own vegetable bed and blueberry patch.

Oh, and we are getting a puppy in two weeks.

So, I suppose I am NOT opposed to small changes.

I just don’t really see them as changes. More like fun little evolutions or necessary next steps or practical advancements in, say, our ability to have greater dairy-free frozen desert options.

I am prone to feeling big emotions and wanting to make sweeping kinds of change in order to address them.

And, I am aware of this.

Consequently, I never act rashly.

The problem is, this leads to chronic, circular questioning of options until the seesaw of pros and cons becomes completely paralyzing.

Tralala. Imagine the lucky few who get to live with me.

I like to think of myself as an undiscovered mover and shaker or innovative creative genius. But, I think more likely I am simply an impulsive Gemini with a patient husband.

The truth remains, however, that real change requires discomfort.

The challenge is, knowing if you are the kind of the person who finds discomfort comfortable, when being comfortable is really the most radical course of action.

And more importantly, when your soul truly needs to fly, free. Unencumbered by dueling mind-based philosophies that cannot speak its language.