Over the last while I've become quite critical of myself in an effort to improve simple things that have the potential to spoil a morning or a whole day. One of those is my tardiness at taking out the bin early on bin day. Tomorrow is bin day.
Along with various other shortcomings of mine (I have plenty of them), I think that getting the small things rectified can then provide greater freedom and scope for dealing with the more challenging issues. This was cemented last week when LL and I woke up at 6:30 to the sound of the bin truck ... driving away. We had missed it. LL was devastated and berated me heavily for not getting it sorted in a timely manner. It devolved from there into a substantial meltdown over something which in my mind was a small issue but to her seemed the end of the world. Perspective is everything.
We spoke about it and while comforting her, I tried to explain that missing the bin truck for one week was not the end of all things, the bin was only a quarter full as we are only two people. It did leave me with a lump in my throat though as it was not the best start to the morning and tainted a good portion of the day thereafter.
One of the reasons that I don't like putting the bin out the night before is from prior experiences of living in a very dodgy area where wheelie bins were used for nefarious purposes: Gaining a metre in height can provide access to a window for a break-in and wheelie bins had been stolen and then used to transport stolen property. The area that I live in now is nothing like that but of course my previous point of reference is still in my mind and lends me an uneasy feeling about changing my behaviour - but I will if it prevents a meltdown tomorrow by missing the bin truck and I don't really want to go two weeks without it being emptied for obvious reasons.
It's not a big change in the grander scheme of things and the endless responsibilities that I have on a day to day basis, but at least it will resolve one issue and tomorrow we won't wake up in a flurried rush to chase down the truck before it drives away.
So that was my mission for today - a full cleanup of the yard and house and while doing so I found the little pieces that nature left behind pictured above. Beautiful even in death, they have earned a place on my daughter's nature table.
The bin is going out tonight and I'll fight the uneasy feeling in the knowledge that it might be a better outcome after all. That's the funny thing about change. It can start with a stupid little thing like this that has a small impact, but many of these little changes and being dedicated to improving where you are lacking, that's what counts - immaterial if it's trash or not.
Stay awesome everyone!
