Here’s a trick that’ll help keep you healthy, wealthy and wise: make it work wherever you are. There are times, it seems, when everything seems to be falling apart at the same time. You set priorities, right? But what’s at
Here’s a trick that’ll help keep you healthy, wealthy and wise: make it work wherever you are.
There are times, it seems, when everything seems to be falling apart at the same time. You set priorities, right? But what’s at the top of the list of priorities today is at the bottom of the list tomorrow. The car has a hitch in its get-along, the wind dropped a branch on the roof and you’ve loaned the ladder to a friend who’s out of town — and which you shouldn’t be climbing up in, anyway — and your handy man, men do come in handy, has the sniffles and a headache … on and on and on and on. You know the drill.
My approach to such chaos used to be: run in circles, scream and shout, tear my hair and flounce about. Exhausting and a waste of time. I took up solving the problem slowly. I don’t know about you, but I’m running a bit slower these days — darned if I’ll blame the years — so I took up skipping, lowered my voice, patted my hair and gave up flouncing. Flouncing around in smelly sweats and mucky barn boots is silly. Flouncing was the first to go. Good riddance.
That skipping junk? Forget it. How do you skip in circles? Skipping out. Bye bye.
I’ll admit — once upon a lifetime — I used to kick the tires when the car misbehaved. Take that. And that. Then I stubbed my toe.
That worked. A comfy chair, a goof with a view, bird chirps, and a hot cup of tea. Comfort that toe. “Have a long talk with yourself,” I said. And a cookie. I’m a cookie monster. As I sat there, the first time I tried this approach, the world — surprise, surprise — didn’t come to an end. The problems didn’t go away but the stress did. That hidden human dimension which bugs us all. How to deal with stress? Take a deep breath and make up your mind to have fun with it.
“Fun?’
Seriously. What is stress? “To subject to physical or mental pressure, tension or strain.” A useless pastime. Solves nothing. Just contributes to the problem. It’s that boogie man under the bed that, as a kid, you learned to get after with a broom.
Actually, the way it worked out, I decided to have fun solving the problem. It was, as it should have been all along, a fun thing to do.
“Yeah? Well you’re broke,” my mind grumbled.”What’s the fun in that?”
“My Scottish blood loves to pinch pennies,” I answered.
“Pinch my foot.”
“Been there done that. Money problems are the worst …”
“You can say that again.”
“Money problems are the worst.”
“Are you trying to be funny?”
“Yep.”
“You’re not succeeding.”
“Have a cookie.”
“These are crackers.”
“Crackers are funny.”
“Crackers are funny?”
“Crackers are funny.”
“You’re repeating yourself.”
“I’m talking to myself.”
“You can say that again.”
“I’m talking to myself.”
“You win,” small chuckle.
We made it work. It never fails.
• Bettejo Dux is a Kalaheo resident and the author of “The Scam: A madcap romp through North Shore Kauai.”
