Happyzine 2015 = exciting times ahead

I am a big picture kind of person.  In my mind, anything’s possible, roof top gardens in the Auckland CBD, saving wild rivers, attracting 100,000 subscribers to my weekly ezine.  So when I note my flat mate’s neatly folding her plastic bags into airless, tiny little parcels  I’m baffled.  Why?  I wonder.  Why would anyone take the time to do that? Why would anyone put time into such a small detail? Why would you treat a plastic bag with such reverence?  How did she get all the air out and make it all tidy and snug like that?  Why, oh why would someone take the time to thoroughly clean the bag, fold it strategically, ensuring it was airless, and finish it off with that perfect little twist?

Note to greenies: Yes, I know plastic bags are uncool, especially here in Golden Bay, which has embraced a plastic bag free culture with the loving air of long lost parents, but some times, they still find themselves into our draws.  And I then see them.  All neatly folded and crisp, like napkins in a five star restaurant.

Note to zen meditators: Yes, I know when you’re in the moment no detail’s too small, but this blog is about me, and I’m only a part-time Zen-er.

Eventually, after the parcels kept appearing in my life, don’t ask me why, perhaps I’m finally embracing my inner detail loving self, but I felt compelled to figure out how she did it.  So with furrowed brow I laid out my plastic bag and set to work trying to figure out her technique.  It eluded me.  I couldn’t work out how to get the air out.  Or how to fold it.  Also, I was having some trouble working out exactly why I cared when there were so many other things to be getting on with.

But care I did.  And so finally.  I sat her down and told her I had something to ask her.

“How do you do it?” I asked, laying the parcel before her.

“What, fold them? Oh that took me years to perfect, you’ll never get it on the first go.”

Oh.  Even more reason to work it out.

Eventually she showed me.  It was like learning a martial art.  Only less of a physical workout.  I tried to copy her, and she laughed.  She who had been folding them since her mother showed her how to do it, didn’t think I’d ever work it out.

But I knew I could do it.  Oh yes.  I did.  And so I practiced.  And I began to make progress.  More and more progress.  Yes, day after day, I’d casually fold that bag.  I knew, with a little repetition, with a little casual perseverance, I’d create my own neat plastic bag parcel.  And that day was today.  Today, when she came home from work I’d strategically laid out a couple for her to ‘find’.  Initially she thought she’d folded them.  Ha!  The ultimate compliment!  That’s all I needed to hear.  She laughed at me, feigning a casual air.  But I knew that she knew that I knew I’d figured out the ancient bag folding technique that her family had handed down to her.  Yes, we both knew it.  So do you know what she said?

“Have I shown you my undie parcels?”

Today’s rating:9/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Tags: perseverence, zen