Six Blessings That Should Be Disguised

A guide to living mindfully

1. Clothes

God must have foreseen what menace this ‘easily stained, constantly wrinkled, high maintenance piece of work’ would bring forth for mankind in the future when he created Adam and Eve without it in paradise. Just think of a world without clothes. No laundry, no stink of the forgotten ball in the washer, or back aches caused by reaching out for the same from the dryer. And if you are one of the unfortunates in the third-world, you use your hands as a tool to scrub and wring the beast and then pray to Mother Nature to bless you with enough sunlight to dry it. No mountain full of that blob of fiber on the sofa that rests there until one folds and put it away! No bags of 100 missing socks without their mate and no fretting over that long spilled coffee or chocolate cake. No research for the best stain remover or detergent and no clinching of teeth at the sight of “Made in China” labels. No fashion, no fads, no brand conscious folks and no more ‘sense’ of dressing to add to the already long list. All the countless hours I would have by not deciding what to wear in front of that mirror would now be spent in counting the dollars I now will save! No shopping for clothes that no longer fit the kids, and no more worries about a size up or down! We won’t be frowning at the dudes on the nude beach and won’t be stripping off more than just clothes when we comment. Ignorance would be more than just bliss, if this was the case.

2. Dishes

How many times have you cringed at the sight of a sink full of dirty dishes? While the use of dishwashers seem prominent in developed nations of the world, most less privileged cooks are stuck with the laborious, seemingly useless, and never ending task of serving, wiping plates off leftovers and handwashing them. How easy it would have been if more people just ate out of banana leaves, polished them off and threw them back on the ground to give back to the earth. Zero wastage, and better still, no garbage bags to lug out the door. This small inconvenience may prove huge in contrast to the hundreds of disposables you pack, or forgot to pack, for your next camping trip.

In the early medieval period in ancient Europe, the standard food vessel was a loaf of stale old bread! In Ethiopia, even today people set out a giant ‘tablecloth like’ fermented bread with vegetables and meats placed on top. The family has to break a small piece and eat collectively at one meal. Natives of North America worked collectively to weave baskets for storage and collection of food like berries and fish and devoured it all together. A meal, in the olden days was not only a source for energy, but a time to promote family bonding. Today it has become yet another chore. We are more concerned about how much food lands out of our children’s plates than into their stomachs. We hardly invite anyone into our house being concerned about perfect cleanliness, but accumulate a room full of pots, crockery and cutlery just ‘in case’.

3. Paper

The paperless fad arose as an answer to the over accumulation of useless paper. It is snowy outside, but even in the summer, I delay the task of checking the letter box. There isn’t any letter to look forward to, just bills and more bills and tons and tons of not to be missed ‘offers’. Who is waiting for that 10% off coupon with a purchase of $100? NOT ME! Me and my husband are working on placing a paper recycle disposal just next to the letter box just so we bury the garbage on the spot.

Another thing I no longer look forward to, is the arrival of my kids from school. Don’t take that literally though-I really meant the arrival of more paper clutter in their bags! The school sends a whole lot of important documents, along with a bunch of useless paper clutter with them from school. More often than not, the important information gets recycled with the ‘not so important’ stuff, and a copy of the same cannot be found in the dozens of mails and apps we subscribed to at the beginning of the year.

Bottom line- Do not keep really important pieces of paper in a ‘SAFE’ place and forgot about them, instead save a soft copy in your phone. Lost a receipt and cannot return an item? Use apps like Recieptpal to snap pictures, keep ’em organized and earn rewards on products and services. You can thank me later!

4. Television

For a few, time warps when they sit and watch something on television. For a busy person like me with very less patience, things seem to lose their appeal if too many steps are needed to get to the final product. With apps like Netflix and Hulu being more affordable than a regular cable subscription, there are many multi-step applications one must follow to get to the ‘watching content’ stage.

Step 1: Find the remotes: Considering we have a separate one for the television, another one for the Blueray player that runs the various apps and a third to switch on the amp to get a surround effect while you are watching, that is a lot of work. Most of the time, it is a struggle to get past step one. With two little monsters and other dogs we board constantly moving them around in their mouths, or vice versa, this is quite the challenge.

Step 2: Check that the correct source is selected in order to run the correct app on TV.

Step 3: Switch on the amplifier and select the correct source to hear anything!

Step 4: Select an app, browse through the genres and finalize what to watch.

Now, that’s a lot of multi-tasking my puny brain can’t handle! Read, look down and press the correct button on the correct remote, make two different decisions at the same time, click on a program to watch and then gradually navigate my way back to the home screen in case I want to view more. By now I have already pressed the wrong button and turned the TV off. Needless to say, I will not go through the ordeal again. To counter this problem, my husband installed a talking Google Home. This one has a mind of her own and will promptly respond, “I cannot help with that” or, “I don’t understand!”. Neither do I.

5. Smart Phones

When I went for choir rehearsal this evening, I kindly asked my friend Allyson how she did at the basketball match, to which she curtly replied, “I hope you are enjoying your Sicilian cheese”, and walked away.

Allyson had sprained her ankle and as a consequence, her team did not win. Everyone at the rehearsal knew about this fact as it made the Headlines on her Facebook page, but me. On another instance, I had requested my friend Maggie for some Sicilian cheese from her recent European trip. She too had won some match, so I congratulated her for the same. Turns out, Allyson was mutual friends with Maggie, who was her rival on the opposing team. When I got home I threw out the cheese, and my phone. Ok, maybe not the latter, but I wish I did.

While I do believe many applications like Youtube, Whatsapp and Facebook have their positives, I hate being a slave to technology. The reason that makes us a slave to technology is the constant force that provides the urge to keep checking it –aka the Smartphone. I am not that old, and have spent half my life without any mobile phone! Our parents would let us walk out that door, forget about it and we still managed to reach back home without any tracking device hanging around our necks. However, today we halfheartedly complete our tasks, raise half-baked children, eat half risen bread and half cooked meals…. You get the point! I would love to walk, drive around and do my chores without having to constantly fear losing this mini-computer. But, we can agree to disagree.

6. Gym

In the part of USA we live in, it snows for six months. It’s beautiful and good for your body. Playing out in the snow makes your children’s lungs stronger and makes them more immune. Sure, there are some people who find getting out in the snow more difficult. Fortunately, we haven’t reached that point yet. That being said, more people have been talking about how just going outside in the snow impacts one negatively. Mind you, 75% of those people never set foot on it. I digress, step out for let’s say, a 10 minute walk on it.

Apart from the breed of people who discourage others from being on the snow for no fault of the snow itself, there are others who love to update you on how they are so tired after a hard work out at the gym. Wasn’t that why they went there in the first place? And there are more who would go on and on about how guilty they feel about not going to the gym. Sorry, I do not understand your pain!

Now, I prefer going outside in all types of weather and this is NOT because I cannot afford a Gym Membership. Even if I did get one, dragging myself to the gym would be somewhat like dragging a cat out on a leash for a walk or, making a dog do the catwalk… I mean, I would totally go outside even if it were raining cats and dogs. You get the point, right! Conversations about being able to make a trip to the gym or not, have been the perfect sentence starter this year, and make me sick to my stomach. God forbid, if I were to work out with them, I may pee in my sweat pants!

Shireen is an avid writer, budding Opera singer, early childhood music teacher, wildlife rehabilitator, dog sitter, dog walker, walker…. Jack of all trades and master of one- Mother to two children aged 6 and 8.

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