When all things are unsettled, make your bed
When you don’t know what to do and nothing seems normal anymore, make your bed! My husband and I have always seen differently on making the bed before leaving home each day. For as long as I can remember, I have made the bed before I leave home. When my boys were little, I made theirs too before leaving for school and work.
For me, returning home after a full day seemed more pleasant, comforting and normal when I came home to a made bed and a house in order.
My husband’s common remarks were, “Why make a bed when you will get back into it later that night,” so living with me meant adjusting to a made bed, come hell or high waters, on most mornings. He may have even believed I was a little obsessive about it until the wonderful YouTube video was shared from this inspiring speech, “If You Want to Change the World, Start Off by Making Your Bed” by William McRaven, US Navy Admiral.
Check out the video on this link: https://youtu.be/3sK3wJAxGfs
In his inspirational speech to graduates, Admiral William McRaven says, “If you want to change the world, start making your bed. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another and another.”
Maybe this is the reason I have felt the need to always make my bed. I am a goal and task-oriented person so that must have given me a sense of pride and accomplishment to complete the first task of the day before leaving home.
Whatever your “normal” is, I encourage you to continue doing during these uncertain times. Whether your normal is making your bed, baking a cake, organizing, cleaning, reading, hiking, biking or any other healthy “normal” activity, do these things while we are finding our “new normal.”
As you create your new normal, leave the bad habits behind and add the healthy ones to your day. Walk, pray, breathe deep, exercise and stay healthy! Get fit in body, mind and soul and then if you want, make your bed!
I pray that as things change for all of us, that we remain calm and peaceful and take the time to accept the things we cannot change and the courage to change the things we can.
A great prayer for all of us right now is the Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen. — Reinhold Niebuhr
Lisa J. Heyer, GRI, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate-Jackson Realty, broker/owner. She can be reached at lisa@lisaheyer.com.