Creatures of Habit

One of the biggest life lessons I have tried to teach my kids (along with laundry sorting and getting up before the cereal turns to mush) is flexibility--the idea that life is not necessarily going to hand you what "should be," and that you'd best be able to handle "what is." It's an ongoing life lesson, but one that I believe will be even more important than how to keep your white laundry from turning pink. (Okay, perhaps not MORE important, but just as).
 
Anyhow, flexible person that I am, so flexible that I am qualified to teach life lessons on the subject, I should be able to roll with anything, right?
 
Mostly, I have to say I am. Hey--I have juggled kids at multiple schools and managed unemployment with grace (well, at least sometimes). But what I realized this weekend is that all of us, flexible or not, count on having little things that stay the same, so that even if all around us changes, we still have things that are familiar. These things can be as simple as a toothpaste flavor or the pillow that we love, but some sense of habit grounds us in the face of what is sometimes constant change. We can roll with a lot, as long as we have something that isn't rolling. Sometimes, it can be important to fight for the little things, even more than for the big ones.
 
The next time I'm teaching "life lessons," I'll have to remember that. Because all the lessons in the world may help, but having something you don't have to learn--something that just is because it is--will make for much more teachable students. And a happier classroom and household all around.