The Good Life

We always see someone else’s life as a movie trailer. We’re drawn into it by the highs and the lows that make a good story. On Instagram, it’s often the highs. On Facebook, it’s often the lows, to create that connection by saying we’re all humans. But, real life is far from the trailers that is our social media presence. In fact, the movie is totally different from the trailers. A movie is often dragging, bulky with characterizations, heavy with explanations, and we often have to bore ourselves with the beginning and middle to be rewarded with a good ending.

It is so much like life.

I post my window view on social media. It’s as spectacular as it gets! I post my unboxing of toys and bags, mix it up with good food, and moments with family.

It looks like a leisurely life.

It’s not.

It takes a lot of work.

Instagram says I go to a dance class on Monday evenings. What it doesn’t say is that before I could get into my workout clothes and step into the class, I would have gone to my day job, gotten my groceries, sorted out my laundry, thrown my trash, and prepared my work tote for the next day. Now that I’ve written it, it also seems easy but not really. There’s only an hour after the work day and before the class begins and it’s a hectic one. I get so exhausted preparing to relax and it’s ironic, right?

But the invisible work that we do is the backbone of all the wonderful things we have in our life.

One of the invisible work that I do is go to therapy twice a month. For one hour every session, I do the most difficult thing I do in my life- talk about trauma and grief and falling down and getting lost in the abyss. Sometimes, there’s a lot of crying. But most times, there’s a lot of rage. And I put my thoughts into words, not just words, but precise words. I have two doctors who guide me in naming my emotions, identifying my thoughts, and putting them in their proper context. So that at the end of the session, there’s clarity and understanding. And the best thing is that I can go on with life not wallowing in these thoughts. I call this my mental workout and my trainers happen to be the best in their field. I believe my mind is the most powerful thing I have so I only entrust it to the best doctors.

If that’s my mind workout, my physical workout comes in many forms. I log in 6,000 steps a day. I walk 5 kilometers with friends every weekend. I’m coming this close to taking up boxing to amp up my routine.

Then there’s the life workout. It’s when you continue to do the things that make your place a spectacular place to live in. Yes, I use spectacular a lot. I use white bedsheets and I change them myself. I vacuum. I edit my clothes. I schedule my laundry. I keep my ref well stocked with water and my cabinet with tissue.

Then there’s a beauty routine that deserves a long, separate post.

Nothing is by happenstance.

A good life is built with plain good hard work.

And, so I end it with a story about my cats. Hella and Haya have been the joy in our lives. They pose pretty for pictures but there’s a whole lot of hard work going on behind the scenes. We take them to the vets. Our sofa is all scratched up.

And, the big news of all. I clean their litter.

Xoxo,

Butch