No New Ideas

Yesterday on my morning commute, I sat on the left side of the train instead of the right. (It was a really packed train.) As the train trundled along through Castro Valley, Fruitvale, Oakland – I thought to myself, “Wow, the view looks so different, just from the other side of the train.” And then I laughed to myself and at myself, because I’ve definitely thought the same thing before and probably congratulated myself on how deep and introspective that thought seems – and here I was, about to do the same thing again.

I know I am a creature of routine – something I’ve repeated time and time again, on this blog, in conversations with others in response to the inevitable “How’s life?” question – but this feels more like a creative rut.

I decided to proclaim March to be “Healthy Habit March” for myself – partly because I am tired with how unhealthy I am and partly because I want to have a cleaner complexion by the time I arrive in Taiwan, where I fear the most comments about the state of my skin. It’s only been three full days and I already want to congratulate myself on how well I’ve been doing – but it’s only been three days! So I shouldn’t be too quick to say, look how well I’ve been doing. Healthy habits are not born in three days.

Giving up coffee is hard, and I’m not even doing it right by continuing to drink tea like water.