By Patti Parish-Kaminski, Publisher
Monthly birthday bliss – cake and wine!
Sadly, my birthday month is now history. Joyfully, I received so many kind messages and well wishes from porch sitters. It. Was. Amazing!
There’s nothing like logging on to your social media, email, phone and seeing the mediums blow up with messages! Of course, I’m talking about a positive paroxysm. Blowing up badly has happened – recently and frequently. Hence this election cycle. But you know what they say: There’s no such thing as bad PR – right? Post election, I question that, but I digress.
This past year, I have faced turmoil, tragedy, triumphs and tribulation. I’m pretty sure that’s called life. As I complete one more circle around the sun, here are my takeaways from the aging annuals.
- Self-care sucks. However sucky, it is a requirement. It is not an elective, like when you were in college and wanted to take the “History of Rock ‘n Roll” or “Cowboys and Cadillacs.” And yes, those are real life courses at The University. I paid for at least one of them for baby boy. Self-care takes effort, but it needs to happen, and it needs to happen every day in some form or fashion.
- Enjoy. This is a word I have thought about frequently over the past year. Mawmaw used this word repeatedly. “Slow down and enjoy your supper,” was a favorite of hers as mealtime was the time we sat together, visited and ate – leisurely. There was no rushing out to go to this or that, no distracting cell phones, no rush to watch a particular television show. It was time to slow down and actually enjoy the communal activity.
I’ve implemented the word “enjoy” into many activities that I once took for granted or frankly didn’t think I had time to do: wearing my jammies all day on a weekend, sipping a glass of good wine, doing nothing on a weekend morning but sharing stories and conversations with friends. Taking the time to actually enjoy what I am doing especially the minutia of daily life. It’s a mindset, and it’s golden.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff. Just today I drove through a drive thru in my jammies and slippers. Nobody cares. And you will find me out and about without full makeup and a coiffed hairdo. Who am I kidding? I don’t have a hairdo. I have a hairdon’t.
- Messy doesn’t matter. I’ve spent the majority of my life cleaning up after children, employees, family, friends, and of course, Mr. Kaminski. Things can get messy – on all fronts – but does it really require a Mach 10 level effort of immediacy? Is tidying up the madness a heart-pounding, full throttle sweating exertion at your earliest convenience – or sooner? My closet is messy. My bed isn’t made. I am the queen of a messy bun. I have projects spread out all over my office. Come see me anyway. I don’t care. I’ll enjoy my time with you, and if you need to talk about my state of general disarray, good. That means I’m relevant.
- Expressing gratitude. The attitude of gratitude is everything. I sincerely appreciate the big and the small. Heck, I’m grateful if someone returns my phone call or email. That means I matter to that individual, and isn’t that something to be grateful for?!
I sincerely appreciate all of the birthday bliss showered on me this month. Porch sitters are just the best! See y’all next week – all self-cared up, enjoying time together in my jammies on a cluttered, messy porch!
Patti Parish-Kaminski
Follow Patti Parish-Kaminski on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnThePorchWithPatti/ and on Instagram at instagram.com/ontheporchwithpatti/.
