The Pleasure of Routine
Hello, @adsactly readers
The famous Venezuelan writer Yolanda Pantin is the author of the well-known poem entitled 24 horas en la vida de una mujer (24 hours in the life of a woman), which speaks precisely about that routine of life that women have on a daily basis:
He wake up
she combs
Wash
She fills a jar with water
dresses
It gets fixed
fits
He gives a kiss to whoever he wants
without fire
lifeless
without soul
she's gone to sleep
He sleeps.
In this brief but extraordinary poem we find that the lyrical voice tells us how everyday life turns us into automatons, insensitive to what surrounds us. Routine as a cycle of repetition and loneliness that deteriorates, ends, kills not only relationships, but human beings. According to this poem, the daily monotony is then an enumeration of mechanical and repetitive actions that, rather than giving colour and emotion to life, blurs us until we become shadows.
According to the previous poem, every day we wake up and sleep at the same time, we do the same things, we walk the same paths, we eat the same foods and with the same people. Apparently, some people's lives are written in a libretto, which does not accept improvisation or spontaneity. But as I said at the beginning, I believe that having a routine, although it makes us predictable, makes us happier, smarter, safer and even healthier, since we are not exposed to the daily uncertainty of events, but we are sheltered under the shadow of the known. Or at least we try not to be.
Imagine for a moment that we take the habit of reading three hours a day, at the end of the month we will have read some books and perhaps we will know more about some subjects. Likewise, if we take the habit of drinking a juice every morning to detoxify the body, we will surely be healthier at the end of the year. Also, if we exercise daily or if we make a habit to drink a lot of water, eat more vegetables, laugh more. The fact that a person knows his partner, what he likes and what he doesn't like, or that he knows how to face or solve a problem at work, are details that should be seen as positive and that knowledge is only given by time, constant contact, repetitive habits, routine. Let's remember the old phrase that says: "The routine makes the teacher".
Obviously, extremes are always harmful. It is not to make our life a permanent shock or a box or a circle where there are no possibilities of change. The idea is not to be crushed by routine, by the usual tedium given by unwanted tasks, adsorbent places or bad habits. The idea is that we enjoy the things we do daily, our work, the moment we share with our partner at the end or beginning of the day. Surely if we enjoy it, rather than seeing it as something disastrous or unpleasant, we will be able to thank and even yearn for those routine and ordinary moments. For example, I can enjoy going on a trip, but I'm glad to go back to my house, to my bed and with my loved ones.
As I write, a few verses from another Venezuelan poet, Alexis Romero, pop up in my mind and say: "Today from seeing so much of you, I saw you". It is interesting and rational that the true knowledge and recognition in the couple, comes with the years and the constant sharing. The daily routine, that which becomes thought, but also memory, between two people is what allows trust to exist, the consolidation of feelings and the reinforcement of the bonds of a couple.
The wise king Solomon wrote: "Instruct the child in the right way, and even in his old age he will not forsake it". In other words, human beings, since we are small, we are creating habits, these practices that we form in our lives stay with us for a long time. The intention is, then, that these customs are positive and very especially, that they make us happy and help us to grow.
In order not to get out of the routine, I end my post by reminding you that you can vote for @adsactly as witnesses and join our server in discord. Until the next smile. ;)
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCE
Alexis Romero (2001). The stems of false balances. University culture: Venezuela
Julio Miranda (1995). Poetry in the mirror. Fundarte: Venezuela
Written by: @nancybriti
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I agree that habits, good ones, are key to consistency and discipline. Ben Franklyn developed a whole method to build the self-made man. Fitzgerald used that to mold the Great Gatsby and most self-help literature is founded over some habitual basis.
I think that when it comes to creative work and fitness, habits are key to achieving goals. But, as you suggest, a balance should be found and life is full of surprises it would be a pity to miss just because we always want to be on the safe side.
I think that many of the wonderful things that happen to us in our lives are the result of "accidents", serendipity, or improvisation. As some people say, that which we do not plan ends up working better.
I'm reading to you and I'm remembering a poem that speaks precisely of how the joy of life is that chain of coincidences and surprises that take our breath away. I enjoy the routine a lot, but I don't close myself off from it. I have a niece who is bored and is always looking for something new to do and always tells me that I'm not bored because I'm old. hahahaha. Maybe with the years, we learn to value the quietness of the sea, the same smells, to appreciate the same spaces. Thank you for your accurate comment, @hlezama.
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Your treatment of the subject of routine seems to me very appropriate and successful, @nancybriti. I believe that there is an enriching routine, the one we give to ourselves, related to our tastes and pleasures, our purposes, our searches... There is, on the contrary, an impoverishing, alienating routine, which is imposed on us as a foreign obligation, which we follow unconsciously or involuntarily, in which we are not ourselves.
Greetings.
@nancybriti, Many people have very negative perception towards Routine but in my opinion it's consistency. When we perform something consistently and then any change come, we can adopt that change because we put this consistent efforts towards this change too.
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I haven't been a routine gal for many years, not since I retired from the food industry. To run a food business, routine is EVERYTHING. The entire staff has to work together like the innards of a clock lest the customer not get his everything bagel at 8:12 am in time to catch the 8:20 train to HIS routine-dependent job. I found routine easy back when my job was everything, and I had little time for much else.
But then I had children, and routine became both more important and more difficult to achieve.
Now as a retiree with adult children (mostly), I can mess around on steem for one hour or five, I can get up at 7am or sleep until noon. I can eat when I am hungry and go for spontaneous walks.
I'm loving the lack of routine now that I no longer have to be so productive.
I appreciate your comments and slant on how routine can be the bones of a good relationship, the day to day moments and understandings between each other can be very supportive, and the routines of home comforting.