Thursday, December 18, 2008

"You Are Not Your Daily Grind"

I read this on Steve Ross's Web site. In case you don't know who Steve Ross is, he's a man who teaches yoga on the Oxygen network at 6 o'clock every morning. Back when I was a working girl (yeah, right), I woke up every morning and did Steve Ross's yoga class live. In the bedroom. David still has dreams in which he hears a tenor voice saying, "Step or jump back, come down, up dog, down dog," to funky music. Yeah, that's one think I like about Steve Ross. He does yoga to songs like "Do You Want a Revolution (Whoop, Whoop)," and "Tomorrow People." It's a tough workout. But what I really like about it is the mediation sequence he does at the end.

Luckily, now I Tivo Steve and occasionally get a chance to practice with him during nap time. Today, it was absolutely essential, as Ryan pulled an incredibly rare "I'm gonna be bad and don't you dare try to talk me out of it" kind of days. Let's just say it started with torturing the dog, ended with perhaps intentionally knocking Daddy's chock-full glass bottle of Red Stripe on the tile floor thereby shattering the glass and dousing everyone within a 15-foot perimeter in stinky beer. In between, he took a carrot peeler (how he found it, I have no idea) and proceeded to scratch the television set with it. His dad had the fortune of being home for lunch when that happened, and I thought he was going to choke on his soup.

Since Ryan was a baby, we have always said we would never spank him. I stand by that, but I wonder just how much a child can stand being told to "Stop that behavior right now," or "Go to your room," Or "TIME OUT!" At a certain point, it seems like maybe a physical experience might work better. But I am afraid of what hitting--that's what spanking is, let's face it--might introduce an element of violence into our relationship that would not be good. Plus, Dr. Phil says it's easy to get worked up and go too far. If Dr. Phil says not to do it after having on all of those drill sargeants who scream at 13-year-old problem children, then I say maybe it's not a good idea.

Anyway, after all of that, that simple line from Steve Ross sticks with me. "You are not your daily grind." I certainly hope so. I find myself some days thinking, "I used to be cool. I used to be funny. What has happened to me?"

As my sister-in-law, who is raising three great kids, says to me "Don't worry. It doesn't last forever, it just feels like it does."

1 comment:

Jen said...

"I used to be cool. I used to be funny. What has happened to me?"


I find myself repeating this over and over to myself, many times, every. single. day. Let me know if you figure it out.