Making Like a Wise One

I’m kind of banking on the fact that one doesn’t need to be old to be able to be wise. And not just be wise, but live wisely. And what does living wisely mean? Well for me it definitely has something to do with smoothing out the ride, being able to anticipate potential hazards, setbacks, problems, and adjust accordingly before they hit.

And it also seems to have something to do with responding appropriately, reasonably, even calmly, to new situations and new information. People who have some wisdom seem hard to ruffle, like they receive information and move in stride with it, they do or don’t do, like Yoda, rather than getting all hijacked and bent out of shape and pissed off and panicked and scared and running around all frazzled like some people do. Like, well, this person does, or might be inclined to do, sometimes.

For example, now that we’ve survived the fires we’re apparently supposed to be preparing for mudslides and “debris flows.” I read about that on Facebook and immediately got pissed off at the poster, who was simply trying to be helpful.

There was a lot of information about how to put sandbags where and how to avoid getting hit by branches, rocks, and other crap coming down the mountains whenever it rains, and where to park one’s car to avoid getting buried in mud, and how one should keep a phone charger and extra battery pack in the car at all times, assuming it’s not buried in mud.

I was like, “Seriously? Seriously? I want to go back to worrying about the extra five pound jiggle on my butt and whether or not Ax will ever learn to read words that are more than three letters long and whether or not I can wear black spandex every day and still call myself a hippy. Mudslides? Sheeet.”

My first thought was we need to move to Hawaii, which seemed totally reasonable given that I like sunshine and real estate there is relatively cheaper than here. Of course the fact that our life is here, work, family, school, home, did not interfere with a full-on online Hawaii real estate hunt. Then it was move somewhere else. Then it was a few other things.

A day later, meaning now, I’m thinking that a wise person might think about maybe getting some sandbags and doing what the poster suggested. A wise person might even do it. Or a wise person might consider the source, the likelihood, the actual location of our house, which is further from the foothills than many, though not as far as Hawaii, and decide it’s okay to let the mudslide prep thing, well, slide.

A wise person might forgive herself for getting upset at the prospect of being buried in mud. A wise person might think about whether it’s time to take another one of those social media mental health breaks.

A wise person might look around at her cat, her kid, her husband, her totally not-buried-in-mud existence and breathe normally, in gratitude. I’m gonna make like a wise person today, or at least this moment. I’m gonna keep going.