Easily Excitable

It’s October…okay, okay. It’s almost October. 

It feels like it this morning, at least. 

September has flown by: that’s a good thing, as one who adores the fall above all other seasons. 

The latter half of the year brings with it two important times of the year:

1. Gloves off season at school
2. Election season. 

Help us, Lord.

Gloves off season at school? 

October- February: it can be a bucking bronco. Such is the way with ninth and tenth graders. Just means they will test every boundary and every bit of patience you think you have.

Basically? The kids are just being kids. 

In Bleckley, we have good kids. But even good kids will- you guessed it- still be kids. 

That honeymoon season- the ‘everyone is on their best behavior’ time- is over. Reality is upon us. 

Last Tuesday, one of my kids said, “You know, I’ve never seen you in a bad mood.”

By that Thursday? He had that privilege. Luckily for me, though, my bad moods normally last 55 minutes- the time of a class period. 

After that, I can reset, even if my patience is a little thinner. 

I needed this weekend, though. 

Next, and probably more pertinent for this writing?

Election season.

We’ve been getting political mail every day for the past month. The commercials have interrupted my Saturday football-watching experience.

Same thing with Facebook. 

Same thing with the news.

And with the ads comes the fear-mongering. Everyone will try to convince you that people who believe differently are to be feared, hated, and avoided. 

The parties and all their relations might not be so bold as to say that, really, but it’s the truth. And what these folks will ultimately try to convince you is that people on the other side actually aren’t people at all. 

So for the next couple of weeks, I think I’m going to write some posts under the thread of “Small Acts of Rebellion.”

These small acts of rebellion are the ways we can diverge from what the current climate says we must think, feel, and be. 

Here’s my first piece to that end. 

Something I started thinking about Sunday:

What are some things I love? That afternoon, I made a list. 

This is a good practice if you’re anything like me, and it’s easy for you to forget things to be thankful for. 

Now, I’m all for listing out my gratitude items, but what I love about a list of things you love is that you come up with things that are outside of the box- typically little things- and then at the end, you get to be grateful for them. 

It’s simple but effective, and it’s a good reminder that passion and adoration are good things. 

For example? Right now, I’m sitting in the backyard. 

It’s Friday, Boone is chewing on sticks, the weather is what I think will be typical in heaven, and I have dinner plans with my best friends tonight. 

I love that. 

Some other things I love?

• Swimming in the pool
• Getting my hair done
• Walking out of school on Friday
• Talking to people at church on Sunday mornings
• Revisiting old memories with my friends and family
• Laughing until my stomach hurts
• Waking Zayden up in the mornings
• Working Saturday mornings, then spending the afternoons watching football

But also? I love

• Trey Kotara
• Traveling
• Getting all the laundry finished (washed, folded, put up)
• Clean baseboards
• Candles
• Smoking briskets
• Saturday morning workouts
• Road trips
• Gas station coffee
• Taco Bell
• Sunrises

I’m crazy about

• Looking at the stars when I walk Boone
• Being greeted by Boone
• Smelling Boone when he’s just gotten a bath
• Walking and listening to a podcast
• Deep conversations
• Family traditions and get-togethers
• Working out on Saturday mornings
• Hanging out with women
• Fernandina Beach
• Picking and eating muscadines
• The Perry National Fair

Some more of my passions:

• Anything related to fall
• The way fall smells in the morning
• In fact, all the fall smells: cotton defoliant, dust, pulled peanuts
• Pancakes and blueberry syrup
• Painting 
• Chai lattes from the Mule Barn
• Working while listening to my Chill Instrumental Spotify playlist
• Mowing grass (even if our lawn doesn’t currently support that)
• Perfume
• Dressing up, whether for a formal event or for Homecoming Week
• Gardening and getting a little color back after wintertime
• Seeing my teenagers laugh and have fun in English (doesn’t happen all the time, but every once in a while)
• Boone jumping up in the bed in the night and snuggling with us

I could write endlessly, but you get my drift.

There is so much to love in life, and I think it’s worth remembering that. Making a physical list might be a good practice every once in a while. 

I think it also makes us more empathetic: at least, it does me. 

It reminds me that I, as well as the folks around me, are a lot more than just a career, a title, or a conglomeration of our many opinions. 

If we all talked about our inconsequential affections before we ever touched on our opinions, chances are we’d probably find others more likable, more interesting, and more difficult to talk down to. 

I may be crazy here, but it would be hard to sneer at someone if I knew she loved Smores Poptarts. 

Or that her aunt calls her Pumpkin. 

Of that she enjoys swinging on the playground with her kids, rather than just pushing them.

Not saying it would solve every issue, but it might solve a couple. Small facts about other people remind us of their humanity: it’s endearing.

Every news outlet will convince you that people ‘on the other side’ are aliens, monsters, or the like. 

Whatever they are, the message is this: they are different from you. You have nothing in common.

But what those individual proclivities and truths tell me is that we’re all a lot more similar AND a lot more unique than we would have guessed. 

Those intricacies, to me at least, is proof of a Grand Designer.

He is one who shifted the genetic gear in you that- oh, I don’t know- makes cilantro taste like soap. 

It is He who crafted your childhood so that you love sitting outdoors, rather than relaxing inside: it is He who engineered your brain so that you prefer black coffee instead of cappuccino.

Psalm 139:13-15 says,

For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you

    when I was made in the secret place,

    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

All of our likes, loves, and passions (along with our quirks, annoyances, and dislikes) were programmed into us by God Himself, and that programming makes us uniquely human. 

Paradoxically, we’re all similar in that we were created to be vastly different. 

I don’t care what your TV or your Facebook algorithm tells you: you’re a lot more like your neighbor than you might think. 

So, the first small rebellion? 

Remember what you love. Thank the One who made those things, as well as gave you the opportunity to fall in love with them. 

And remember your neighbors have an internal list as well, and they, too, are worthy of your love.