I Am Learning to Love the Sound

I am learning to love the sound of my feet walking away from things that aren’t good for me. Is that not the best? I saw it posted this morning, and I could hear the sound…and it’s sweet.

It’s not easy to (a) admit when something is not good for you and (b) walk away from it. Doing both is worthwhile, though, and the more you do it, the better you get at it. At first, you miss the thing. The thing may even fight back or try to worm its way back in. After you arms-length a few things and start experiencing some real peace, it gets kinda fun. You actually start looking for the trash that needs to be taken out. Your feet start walking away.

Learn to love the sound of your feet walking away from…

~ negative, bitchy people. They’re constant complaining and fussing gets into our brains like one of those songs you just can’t shake (think The Muppets’ “mah nah, mah nah”, you’re welcome) and pretty soon we’re walking around feeling terrible about life and complaining about every, little thing, too. Negative, bitchy people bring us down with them. It’s not likely we’re going to bring them up.

~ undesirable relatives and “close” friends. Look, blood or not, if people are not nice, helpful, genuinely interested in you, supportive, and just like to keep drama brewing, put them out to pasture. No where in any book is there a law on staying loyal to and working overtime to foster a relationship with any family member who brings you down. And I don’t care if you’ve known them for 23 years, enough is enough. Out to pasture. Way out there. By that one hay bale. Near that lone cow.

~ feelings of guilt. Unless what you’re up to is illegal or immoral, you should not feel guilty about it. Own yourself, conduct yourself with only the best intentions, and don’t second guess yourself. Don’t “let” anybody make you feel guilty. If you operate from your heart, make decisions deliberately with a clear conscience, and can stand behind your choices, keep truckin’ without feeling bad one itty, bitty bit.

~ crap you don’t want to do. If you don’t want to go, don’t. If you don’t want to invite them, don’t. If you don’t want to put on pants, don’t. Stay home. By yourself. In underwear. I think faking through something you don’t want to do is worse than not doing it. Plus I don’t have a good “fake it” face. Stop putting yourself through hell to do stuff you don’t want to do, and watch the world adjust. It will.

Practice this, y’all. I’m trying every day. Trying. I’m getting better at it. You know, we only get one life. Why are we spending it working to please everyone else? Doing all the things that stress us out? Going to the places we don’t want to really be? Being around yucky people? If it’s not meant for us, if it doesn’t help us reach our goals, if it doesn’t bring us peace, if it doesn’t fill us with joy…let’s learn to love the sound of our feet walking away from that mess.