Treat me Right

Margie's post yesterday sent me to three different stores trying to buy the September issue of Vogue.  September comes out in August and I was hard pressed to find a copy.   I am at page 369, still wallowing in the delicious ads seeing this and that, things that I wish I had or worse, that I wish I could wear.  Or worse than worse, coveting the body that would carry those clothes just like the pictures.  Everything is so polished, so perfect. 

We want that, don't we?  The nice things, the beautiful images, you understand, don't you?  We see and want the things we think we deserve, but real life does not match the magazine fantasy.  We don't always treat ourselves right, we don't  make the small changes that could give us the same good feeling that looking at the pretty advertisement does.

Almost every day, I make a lunch and pack it in a bag and lug it to work, not because I'm particularly fiscally responsible or health conscious, but simply, my homemade lunches are better than the proffered fare at nearby restaurants.  A few months ago, like a robot, I walked to the fridge, retrieved my lunch, snapped the lid off the container, went to take a bite and out of the blue, I had a split second of mindfulness and saw that eating out of plastic containers with a plastic fork was gross, it wasn't special. Day after day, lunch after lunch, I was eating in a temporary, throw away kind of way.  I looked into my plastic bowl of salad and saw the correlation between me and how I was presenting my lunch to myself.

I have beautiful dishes at home, I set the scene for breakfast and dinner.   What had happened to lunch?   I had just never noticed that lunch should be as important a meal as our dinner in terms of presentation.  Eating in the office, around the breakroom table was not terribly inspiring.   Here I was, eating a gorgeous salad which I had prepared with care out of a worn, plastic container.  Things hadn't taken a downward slide, this was my normal.  I had never bothered to consider that I could be different, that my lunch was important and that no matter what I'm doing I deserve, if not the best, at least better than the worst.  

That weekend, I bought myself this

 

Now,  I transfer my lunch from a plastic container to my new dishes and eat properly with a fork that doesn't bend or break. When I'm done, I wash them and place them in the overhead bin at my desk (read:  cubby).  They are Corelle, not the best china, but a step up from Ziploc/Glad.  It feels good, it feels proper.

It was a small investment in money, time and nerve.  No.  Seriously.   True confessions amongst the shudder sisters, I was a bit nervous that someone would say, "What are you doing?  Where did those dishes come from?  Why are you doing that?".  It hasn't happened and now I'm secretly proud of my move to real dishes.    I see the lunch room crowd wondering and looking, but no one has mentioned it yet.  Maybe it's me making them a tiny bit nervous with my strange ways.

Hmm, self confidence from dishes, now that's an angle that not even I had anticipated.

Do me a favour, okay?  Notice something in your own life, what thing are you doing, day after day, that you could easily change to make it special?  Just one small thing, change it until special becomes your new normal.  Could it be buying yourself one perfect crystal wine glass?  A luxurious rich towel?  That really expensive tea?  A natural fibre sweater?  A sparkly piece of jewellery (you know the one, the $10.00 score from THAT store that really looks like it came from Holt Renfrew)  Is it putting that glass jug (the one you got as a wedding gift) in your fridge with instead of the old plastic one?

The whole eating out of proper dishes thing took a couple of weeks, start to finish.  It was a great idea, then I bought the dishes, then I washed them and they sat at home, posed in their still life.   I finally brought them to work and  I couldn't  even bring them out the first day, because I really wondered what the heck I was thinking. 

Apparently I was doing some good thinking because it's great.

Treat yourself right.  It feels awesome.

Kath

Comments

[eve]

So true, I have just started the whole " I deserve this" thing with my self, and guess what, it feels good. It's only taken me **ty years to work out I am a valuable person who is allowed nice things, and dosesn't care what other people think about that.Go for it!

[leendaluu]

Great idea...one that hasn't crossed my mind but is so true. LOVE that pattern, Corelle you said?

[Christina]

What a good idea! I might have to try that. I have a few things that I feel I could do to make more special. Special can be small but so beautiful!

Thank you for this!

[CCG]

This is such a fab idea. I landed here from the black box. I have enjoyed reading your blog and laughed at your family photo til I cried (sorry). Now my coworkers are probably wondering what is wrong that I am crying at work