Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Okay, so overall my new job is going well.

But the past week or two I’ve been feeling like my life is akin to the directions on a shampoo bottle.

Get up, go to the gym, go to work, come home, eat dinner, pack lunch, set the coffee pot, stretch, read my Bible, and go to bed.

Then I get up, go to the gym, go to work…

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Now, it’s not a bad life. Quite the contrary. I am enjoying the challenges of my new job. I have great friends. I’m packing my lunch and going to the gym and stretching because I’m trying to take care of my body. I’m practicing Hebrew and reading my Bible and setting the coffee pot because I’m trying to take care of my soul.

(If you don’t understand why setting the coffee pot takes care of my soul then…well, I’m reminded of what the late, great, Louis Armstrong said: “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.”)

So why do I feel like I’ve stepped onto a conveyor belt and I’m lurching slowly around the factory, filling up my shampoo bottle at each machine? (Wow, I really need to work on not mixing metaphors.) If all the things in the rhythm of my day are good for me and chosen by me, why do I feel like a robot?

I don’t really have an answer yet, as is often the case. The only thing I’ve come up with so far is that routines, habits, traditions, rhythms, these are all things that help us slowly over time to become who we want to be. But breaking those routines, habits, traditions, rhythms, that’s what we remember. I remember the day I left work at 1pm to go bowling. But if I didn’t stay at work until 5pm every other day, that one day wouldn’t be memorable. I remember the day I stayed up so late that I went to bed without brushing my teeth. But I have to brush my teeth every night for that to mean anything (and let’s not start on dental hygiene.)

So here’s my current hypothesis: the secret is to keep the rhythms and traditions and habits and routines, but to look for occasional, memorable ways to break them. I can lather, rinse, repeat until I’ve got full volume hair and no dandruff, and then skip a day to go do something fun. Because the weird days are what we remember but the normal days are what change us.

Thoughts?