Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Tiny Ticks

I was going to write more about my books I am reading, but this came to me this morning as stirring something in my soul .

Bob and I have been making a concerted effort to get out and walk everyday in the woods behind our house. We do as soon as he comes back from dropping the kids off at school, before the heat becomes unbearable. We take the dogs cause they love it too. When we come back we look for ticks. Monday I had one on my leg, but not Tuesday. Today though I kept feeling something crawling on my legs, but couldn't find it. Finally I saw little dots appear on my shorts, and realized they were little tiny baby ticks, some call them invisible ticks. I ran got a credit card to scrape them off.

Now I am not good at making metaphors or similes, but it made me think of the little things I let pile up in my room, my office, my house, until they are big mounds of stuff to clean up. And this led me to think of the little things I ignore in my own life, my emotions, my spiritual life, my habits, that eventually pile up and get the best of me. And get between me and God, me and my relationships, me and myself. I then have to go through and do a thorough house cleaning. Instead if I had taken care of the little thing in the first place, I wouldn't have to be putting major energy and time out on the this huge pile of junk, clutter, weeds, mess whatever you want to call it. If I had spent that time in prayer and meditation to begin with. If I had not eaten the first bite. If I had acknowledged and dealt with a problem, conflict, anger in the first place.....

I am not a disciplined orderly person, it takes me work to be one, but I have realized over the years it pays to be one. I won't be able to get all these ticks the first time, but they certainly they have my attention and I'll be on guard for them. I remember one time two of our dogs got loose and ran away into the woods for almost a week. Finally found them, they were covered in burrs, ticks, fleas, you name it, and stunk to high heaven. It took us forever to get all the present stuff off of them, and then to get the ones that kept cropping up later as well.

I am now going to get these little baby ticks off to the best of my ability, so I don't have a bigger mess later. I am not going to take my first bite, I will spend time in prayer and meditation this morning, I will pay attention to my feelings and acknowledge and deal with them as needed. Just for today...so I am not having to clean up a bigger mess later.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

What a great reminder, and a great metaphor! I also am not a terribly organized person, and if I am left my own devices my office, my bedroom, and every other space in my life becomes just piles and mountains of ... stuff. And I think ... my spiritual life has matched that recently. I've been in need of one good deep cleaning (which I have done), but also being more vigilant about "keeping the baby ticks off."

1-4 Grace said...

I, too, love teh metaphor. Recently I have begun to deal with some of my own personal issues that have cropped up in the past two years.
Also, learning from how I have let some things slide, blew them off as too little to worry with or just not worth the time and effort.
Those little ticks may not seem worth tiem and effort to some now, but for thsoe of us with the wisdom of some past experience know how damaging they can be.
And so it is with the anger or resentment, the little piles that build, and the unvoiced needs or concerns. Wham! All of sudden it is as bad as Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Yuck!
So, thanks for hte great visual and words of wisdom.
Looking forward to the book discussion. I want the "6 billionth" bumper sticker! Shared it with my therapist today.
I will look forward to heairng for msoem of our RevGuys about their reaction. Some men find her writing to be a little too edgy or crude, but that is what I lvoe about the woman. I like it when she says stuff that I have "thunk" all along.

Mary Beth said...

FAntastic, Abi!

Taking it further, the ticks in my life suck all the life out of me.

I'm off to pray and meditate.

Diane M. Roth said...

yeah, me too... home and office... working on it though... great

Theresa Coleman said...

Me too.
Except I'm in the MIDDLE of The Big Purge. The house is really REALLY messy now.