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This was the thought that came to me today whilst taking a 2 mile exercise walk with my wife. Just Googled the phrase. Looks original enough but unlikely an entirely unique expression. I'm certain the thought has been expressed in a multitude of ways.
Routines gives life a pace and a palette, a clock, a timber and tone - a pace. Yet, I remember thoughts to the effect that routines ~ bad, boring, unimaginative, predictable.
My life has largely been devoid of constructed or constructive routines. Maybe a closer look would show many incidental routines, ones of a shadow of consistency. The absence of routine(s) has, to me, been synonymous with flexibility, an outcome of necessity, and so forth. The absence of routine has also had undesireable outcomes. For example, an inconsistent bedtime and therefore varying "sleep effects" OR the absence of a "routine exercise program".
Is it just because I hit the big 5-0 this month that I have such thoughts, or do I long for routine in my life?
The thought for the day: Routines are the glue that binds life. To me, the idea has an appeal at this time. I wouldn't mind making my life a bit more "routine".
Is your life "routine" in any way? Is that a blessing or goodness? What is "routine" in your life? How did it get to be routine? Is it now part of how you define yourself, important to you - an act of willingness and will?
Is routine "bad" in your world view? Talk about it if you will.
Death is one time event, is forever and affects all of us, so let's agree that death is a universal routine and move on to a discussion of the roll of routine in the lives of the living. ;)
[edited by: Webwork at 7:24 pm (utc) on Sep. 21, 2005]
The latest one for me is from a recent movie we watched - personally I thought it was a BAD movie, but try to see something good in everything.
"No reason to live the same day twice."
So that's my routine, when I see the same old thing coming on, I drop everything and . . . .
Party like there's no work tomorrow.
Sing like there's nobody listening.
Love like your heart has never been broken.
That's a routine I aspire to.
It falls apart after they head out the door, though, but I guess that is why I am in this line of work. It's not so much that I abhor routine, it's just that my mind doesn't function in it very well. I can literally throw myself into a depression if things get too routine for too long. It's been like that since I was a kid. I had more than one teacher suggest that I was hyperactive (which was before they had the acronym ADD). I don't think that myself. I just bore very easily, is all.
But, for most people, routines are very important. They feel lost without them. They are safe, snuggly lines that keep them feeling that life has continuity. As long as you have your Starbucks in the morning, the sun will come up the next day simply because you know you will have Starbucks the next morning too. I envy them at times because I can't, no matter how hard I try, get into a good routine.
Not having good routines in your life and having children is probably more work than having kids should be. My house would be cleaner, at least, if I had a routine.
Discipline is that which allows some measure of direction and keeps us from fleeting flower to flower for a simple pretty smell or small taste of nectar... Routines allow a deeper insight into most things by providing a solid base from which to observe changes and thus allowing us to learn so much about things around us but most useful to learn about ourselves other human circumstances.
I would tell my students and daughter that discipline and routine may seem at times uncomfortable and boring, but is one of your best friends. Embrace routine for life and live deeply.
On the other hand, a life with no consistency isn't healthy either. Many things in life only become truly rewarding after many hours of effort (or discipline, routine, whatever you want to call it).
Personally, I'm totally allergic to routine :-)
I ask because if you work a 9-5 like many of us what would you do then? becuase that is a routine..
Also you couuld call them routines or just the fact that you like having a cig in the morning or a special kind of coffee every day ;)
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds -Emerson
Up to us to define 'foolish' eh? Something to be said for spontaneity. All too often when we say we're stuck in a rut what we mean is simply that we feel bound by the decisions that we've made. The rhythm of routine can lull you into complacency. A metronome of mediocrity if you will.
We may be creatures of habit, but I think it is more accurate to say that we're creatures of choice. So, do we choose our routine, or do we routinely make choices that are consistent with our experience, desires and expectations?
Both extremes have their merits and perils... finding a comfortable balance between extremes is one of those never-ending things in life.
I have a job (Wait, I'm a business owner... the job has ME!), but other than that, I have experienced many things in life that others only pine for. I could go to a happpy grave, with all the unusual things that I have done by not being too routine!
