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Rhythms

When I was in college or grad school, I actively rejected repeating myself.  When the cashier at the coffee shop knew my order, I got something different.  I sat at different places in the library, moved to different study locations, had different things for lunch, walked different ways home.

As I got older, though, time seemed to start moving faster.  When the kids came along, they really needed things to be the same every day or their lives would be uncomfortable (for them and for me!).  And we moved from doing the same things every day (nap schedule, dinner schedule, bed schedule) to the same things every week (piano, soccer, orchestra) and now the same things every year (Apple Festival, Christmas trip, sign up for spring soccer, plan school for next year).  And the years keep flying by.

Part of me worries that the reason things are speeding up is that I am doing everything the same so that one week is a repeat of the previous week.  On the other hand, I think that I really do not have time or energy in my life to keep making all these decisions every single day.  If it worked once, try again, and maybe tweak it so that it's better.  Also, if there is a pattern and everyone knows it, then we all help carry the burden together and it's not just my responsibility to get necessary things done.  The necessary things don't change, why should our routine?

Maybe the reason I didn't want to do things the same in grad school was that I didn't want to spend any time anticipating what came next when I could just enjoy the moment.  But that's something I can work on even if all the weeks/months/years have the same rhythm.

Now it's Thursday, so I'd better do the laundry.

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