Living Juicy

I’ve been thinking and thinking about what I’ve learned during my 30th year. I like to do this kind of activity every year on my birthday — my own little new year’s reflection. Thirty has been interesting. I relearned some important lessons this year.

Trust No One, Love Everyone. I had a good friend who succumbed to personal demons. It was like watching an accident in slow motion. It started with a major change in dressing, then behavior. There were a lot of lies and indiscretions. The reasoning was bizarre and always self-deprecating while at the same time lacked any personal responsibility. It ended with a broken friendship. I still care about this person and what happens, but I know and I’ve learned that I do not want that kind of drama in my life. I’ve learned that being a good friend does not mean getting sucked in and chewed up. It means being a strong person and having the courage to say, “You know, I don’t agree with your behavior and I can’t be around you anymore.” That was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in the last year.

Get Off the Pleasure-Pain Rollercoaster. Another lesson, discussed here and elsewhere ad nauseam, if I don’t move my body the calories I consume will trounce my metabolism and I will get fat. You’d think after 30 years this would be a no-brainer. The problem comes down to pleasure and pain. I get a lot of pleasure from food. I also truly enjoy relaxing and snuggling in, I am a homebody at heart. So, day after day, I indulge in the pleasures of these two things. However, eventually, I gain weight. Then I undergo a lot of pain from the excess body fat. Getting dressed and leaving the house becomes a personal trauma. The pain overwhelms the pleasure. So, I work out and it hurts, it is hard–the pain and the pleasure competing on both sides of the spectrum. All of this is totally unnecessary if I’d just maintain a consistently healthy eating and exercise lifestyle. I’ve relearned recently that I keep up this façade as a way to protect myself from success. As long as I’m struggling with my weight, I don’t have time to deal with other issues in my life. The weight will always be a priority until I decide to step off and approach it newly.

Give Up. The last lesson I’ve learned, the more I try to control or manipulate the uncontrollable the more unhappy I become–and most likely the more I cause disaster. Control is a myth and a fantasy we humans like to convince ourselves of to keep from feeling insecure. However, the truth is we live in a chaotic and frenetic universe. Even the smallest change in atmosphere can cause major catastrophe. We are living by the grace of God. The only thing we may have control over is our own attitude and perception (and even that is a very precarious power). Happiness is a choice. I knew this and I am in knowing of this once again. The whole thing could go down at any moment–may as well enjoy it and remember to live each moment juicy.

Finally, here are some fun statistics about me and my birthday, just to break up all the deep stuff.

1) My Name.
Sydney is a boy’s and a girl’s name. Sydney \s(y)-dney, syd-ney\ is pronounced SIHD-nee. It is of Old English origin, and its meaning is “wide meadow”. Also possibly place name: Saint Denis.

2) Five interesting things that happened on my birthday.

1. 1789 - French Revolution: Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille and free seven prisoners.
2. 1798 - The Sedition Act becomes United States law making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.
3. 1825 - The Jefferson Literary and Debating Society was founded at the University of Virginia.
4. 1969 - Large denominations of United States currency, namely the $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills, are officially withdrawn from circulation by the Federal Reserve System due to “lack of use,” leaving the $100 bill as the largest unit of circulating United States currency. [1]
5. 1995 - The MP3 format was named.

3) Five famous people (politicians, entertainers, sports figures, etc) who share my birthday.

1. 1868 - Gertrude Bell, English archaeologist, writer, spy, and administrator (d. 1926)
2. 1904 - Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish Yiddish author (d. 1991)
3. 1912 - Woody Guthrie, American folk musician (d. 1967)
4. 1913 - Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., 38th President of the United States (d. 2006)
5. 1918 - Ingmar Bergman, Swedish film and theatre director

5) Five movies, television shows, and songs that were popular during the year I was born.

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was number one at the box office.
2. Rocky won Best Picture at the Oscars.
3. Sex Pistols Anarchy In The U.K. brought attention to punk music
4. Play The Funky Music by Wild Cherry topped the charts.
5. Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley were America’s favorite television shows.

Oh the memories, do you feel old now? I do. Have a great day.