Lady K's cabinet of curiosities

Once you know who you are, you can turn your life upside down and change everything and still just carry on being who you are, doing that thing that you do.

Because extraneous situations are just that: meaningful structures and holding patterns that bring you in like an eddy and move you on when the gravitational pull is just so.

As things evolve, be true to yourself and keep doing what makes sense to you. And you’ll land on your feet.

Recently, having a tiny freakout over the overwhelming potential of our society to achieve amazing things if only we stopped squandering our time, money, energy and abilities on distractions and diversions. If, for a minute, everyone worked together to achieve something massive and good. Imagine the potential…

When we stop judging ourselves, we stop judging everybody else. And then all the people pushing and scowling on the metro become beautiful.

Hey: the week is almost over so you only have to do this one for a couple days! Unless you’re really enjoying yourself.

So this week, I want you to believe that everybody is good. No. More than that, I want you to know that everybody is good and they have your best interests at heart. Even the bad people.

I’m trying hard not to sound too much like a hippie here. So work with me. The idea is that everyone is trying to teach you something. Even that guy who wants to steal your wallet.

So instead of getting afraid or angry or all twisted up when someone rubs you the wrong way, realize that in that other person’s world, they’re doing the right thing. And understand that person’s reason for doing what they know to be right.

It may be different from your right thing. But if you get all bent up because it doesn’t fit with your sense of good, or right, or nice, then you’re not going to be able to learn a damn thing. So short circuit your mind to stop reacting and start listening. You’ll get the best advice, ever.

I can’t believe I just called that a challenge. Really. I just gave you permission to sleep for a whole hour more every day.

It might feel weird at first. But do you really need to stay up and watch that last episode of Arrested Development?

Instead, think about the crazy movies you could make with your own brain. Your brain provides you with in-flight entertainment while your body goes about the business of fixing up all the damage you did to it all day long. How perfect is that?

So do it. Close the laptop. Have a glass of milk. And go to slumber land. You might feel crapper at first, but after a few days you’ll start making serious deposits into your snooze account, paying back that sleep debt.

And eventually you’ll pay off the sleep credit card. And that nocturnal overdraft too. And then you’ll have enough saved up to buy yourself that sleep house you were dreaming about. Ok, maybe not…

But you will feel smarter. Your immune system will like you again. And you’ll have more energy to do things like… well, I’m sure you have a few ideas.

As human beings, all we really need to do is eat, sleep, provide for ourselves, have some fun and take care of each other. It’s really, very very simple. So how did we manage to make everything so complicated?

Admittedly, we’ve invented a lot of good things — like bread, and central heating, and antibiotics — yet we’ve also ended up with all this crap that makes us frustrated and unhappy.

Here’s my challenge to you: this week, eliminate three things that make your life unnecessarily complicated. Let me know what you did… and how it made you feel.