Routines are a wonderful thing.
They can help you sleep better. Get more work done. Connect with others in a predictable and reliable fashion.
Routines are also a lifeblood to creative folks. Having a routine ensures that you make time and space for your creative endeavors. Even though the structure and rigidity of routines seem to counter the free-flowing energy of creativity, they can actually enhance it: By making sure creativity happens in the first place.
Our Guru kitty Max would agree whole heartedly with everything I just said.
And he’d have a little something to add:
If routines are so wonderful, then why did you two bozos break your routine the other night??? What were you thinking?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Melissa and I are no strangers to routine. Having a steady schedule enables us to keep up our spiritual practices, get enough sleep and exercise, and make time for our creative endeavors.
A big part of our routine is bedtime. For quite a while now, we’ve been going to sleep at 9 o’clock.
I do an evening meditation, feed Max, Melissa and I take a hot tub, and then we head up to bed.
Which brings us to the other night.
The other night, we did everything as usual, except the “we went up to bed” part.
I went up to bed, but Melissa did not. She had some work to do in the kitchen, finishing a dish she’d been preparing.
And this is where the Guru fell apart.
The Guru is used to accompanying both of us upstairs to bed. As we do our nighttime routine, he supervises us with his wise Guru consciousness.
Then he goes and hides in the closet.
What does he do in the closet? We have no idea. Probably some secret Guru activities that keep his Guru consciousness in tip-top shape.
Whatever it is, after a few hours he emerges from his closet cave and joins us on the bed for the rest of the night.
Except the other night, none of this could happen. I was upstairs and Melissa was downstairs.
What was a Guru to do??
Yowl, apparently.
Yowl repeatedly at Melissa to see the error of her ways and come upstairs.
Gurus are persuasive, so eventually Melissa got the message and came upstairs. Once she brushed her teeth and came to bed, the Guru followed, plopping down between the two of us.
We’d broken the routine, so he did too. Instead of slipping off to his closet cave, he needed to make sure that the two of us stayed together. That we didn’t stray even further from the routine.
The next night, even though we both came upstairs at the same time, the Guru once again skipped his closet time to park himself between the two of us.
The Guru never stops teaching us valuable and important lessons, and this latest episode was no exception.
What was the Guru trying to tell us?
I am, of course, a mere mortal and cannot fully grock the vast expanse of the Guru’s wisdom, but here’s my stab at it:
1. Routines are important. They add great value to your life. They need to be honored. And followed.
2. When routines are broken, it gives you an opportunity to make needed changes to ensure that the routine will not get broken again in the future.
3. The breaking of a routine also gives you an opportunity to see things differently. If you are wise, the breaking of a routine can give you new perspective, enhancing your greater appreciation for the elements of your life. Like your loved ones. (Even if those loved ones have no idea what they’re doing and abandon the routine for no good reason, it can still help you appreciate them more. And do everything you can to keep them in line so they don’t break the routine again.)
4. The paradox of a routine is that its strict structure makes room for freedom, creativity, and Spirit. This is why routines are to be cherished. And followed. (Again, no thanks to the bozos who don’t know how to stick to a simple bedtime routine.)
Will we always follow our nighttime routine in the future in order not to upset our wise and all-knowing Guru?
We will try.
But we also know that he is quite vocal and loves to tell us what we’re doing wrong, so we suspect he will jump at the chance to school us once again.
Just another day in life with our Guru.
What’s your experience with routines? Share your comments below!
Want Sneak Peeks, Insider Info, and other Fun Stuff?! Become a member of OhMyGod Life!
