chores and parables

PS as in Pre-script: Inko is stress-eating. We installed a metal roof at the back of our house to have a functioning laundry room and it gets so noisy when it rains. As soon as I get him a new cage I'm transferring him in front of our house. Not sure if it's just me or if he's really getting fatter! (Maybe I shouldn't be giving him TWO soda crackers at a time..) 

I could talk about the shitload of chores I did today (it involved a really gross, full sink of dirty grimy dishes)  but as what happens when a person exceeds their normal energy expenditure per day by a hundredfold, I am well-spent. Suffice it to say that I expanded my daily chore threshold a huge deal this past week. 

I'm still behind on my reading (not moving at all actually) but other than that, everything has been checked off my list so far. And doing things is usually a better way to spend time than learning how to do things.

What surprises me about chores, most of all, is how it actually boosts my self-esteem. Seeing things around me changed by my own hands again just makes me feel like, simply put, I can do things. And that's what's been weighing heavy on my conscience all this time, how I can't push myself to go beyond thinking and planning and strategising things. Chores are a quick way of practicing self-application. It's kind of meditative, when I feel myself resisting something, like an extra gross pan in the bottom of the sink with lots of disgusting old wet food stuck to it, but then I ignore that resisting part of me and think of the end of the whole ordeal. The goal. The bigger cause. (Which was simply, a clean sink) And once I see that I got to go beyond my usual whiny, immobilizing thoughts and feelings, I feel encouraged to do it more, especially when I stare admiringly at the now clear, happy-looking sink.

I realize that I haven't really had much hands-on practice with delayed gratification. Funny that I'd learn this through doing chores, and pushing my limits through them. Time limits, energy limits, patience limits, thoroughness limits...

Chores are very basic, but are good vehicles for very general lessons in getting things done. They are very simple in themselves, like parables, but in the same way that parables do, way they get down to show the core of the nature of man. They're more about the person reacting to the circumstances around him rather than the circumstances themselves.

Going to sleep now. My sleeping hadn't been so good (It's currently 2:30) , but I'm planning to bump it back up to waking up at 7AM every morning this week.