Things I Don't Do

I'm reading Shauna Niequist's new book Bittersweet at the moment, and I've just finished the chapter called "Things I Don't Do".

"Things I Don't Do" are things that take unnecessary time and energy away from the things I do do.

Thing I Do include:

I eat chocolate. I just do. In fact, I've got a block of the new Cadbury Dairy Milk roast hazelnut and honey roast cashews sitting right beside me that I've been plowing through for a few days now. I just love nuts and chocolate together. And I try not to make myself feel bad about it.

I bake. It's the one time where my mind is quiet. I like everything about baking- the mixing, the cooking, the eating. Seeing all these different ingredients turn into something so different from how they all started. All of it. Love.

I teach. I'm a teacher. And I'm good at it. It's the one thing about myself that I know that I know that I know. If everything else about me changed, I think I'd still be a teacher somehow. I'd find a way.

I have to have music in my everyday life somehow. Whether it's listening to the radio in the car, putting MTV on the TV when I get home, practising my violin or plugging in my iPod, I have to have music. I like the rhythm, the sound, the science behind the melody and the harmony and the beat and how it all intertwines.

I like photography- looking at photos, taking photos, being in photos. Something about preserving a physical memory, a place in time representing everyday life and the people that are in it just seems important to me.

I love kids- from tiny babies all the way up to upper primary and beyond, give me a child to interact with and I'll be happy. Their innocent happiness just makes me a better person when I'm around them.

I'll probably always be interested in clothes and hair and makeup and other things that make me look pretty. Part of it is just being a girl, but the other part is me wanting to look nice. And I'm okay with that. If something so simple makes you feel better about yourself, as long as it's not becoming an overarching obsession or taking away from more important things, then I'm okay with that.


Things I Don't Do:

I don't cook. The Food Network, Masterchef, Top Chef, etc do not amuse me unless they do a segment on baking. As much as I love baking, cooking is just not the same. Whether this is because cooking is less focussed on sweet things, I can't say, but I just haven't got the knack. And I don't feel feel any desire to, although I admire those who can and do.

I don't get obsessed with my weight. I know from past experience how caught up I can get with those red numbers on the scale, so I tend to avoid the whole thing. This might mean that there are times when I'm heavier than others, but eventually I'll go back. And I judge the whole thing by how my clothes fit, and not by numbers or digits on a little electronic box that sits on the bathroom floor.

I don't spend as much time studying as I should, but I'm okay with that. I lead a busy life, and I do the best I can and sometimes a person needs to give themselves a break. I've realised that I'm still an excellent student whether I've read the whole textbook or not, and that getting an exemplary grade doesn't make any of the other parts of your life better or worse, really.


And I'm okay with all of that.


And by the way... this is my 200th post! Happy 200th Anniversary/Birthday/ whatever celebration is appropriate to my little blog.