Lay Your Brick

Call me Irate Irene today because I am -irritated.- People trying to bring out the worst in me today, but you know what? They ain’t gettin’ it. I’m gonna stay irritated but I refuse to be bothered. I choose to be inspirational and show up like any other day!

I talk about choices a lot. All my life, I never realized how important the choices me make matter. How can something we do a hundred times a day, decide, matter so much. Surely quality isn’t as so important when you’ve got such a huge quantity! I’ve learned just how wrong that thought process was. Why? Because even our smallest and seemingly most insignificant choices become habits. And often, the easiest choices aren’t the healthiest ones, and those easy choices make our brain happy because it got to save a little energy so guess what it wants to do next time? Yep, it wants to make that easy choice again, and before you know it, your brain made it into a habit.

While sitting at my Poppaw’s house today, I was mindlessly staring at the brick beneath the siding while musing, like I do. My mind drew a parallel between my thoughts and my visuals. My body is my home. It’s the framework of my existence. But my choices are much like those bricks. One by one, I lay them each day. Each choice I make that supports my body, I lay a strong brick. Each choice I make that damages my health, I skipped a spot. Much like the way the bricks overlap to prevent a single spot of weakness from causing collapse, our good choices will help support us through those gaps. But what happens if you leave too many holes in your foundation? I don’t want to crumble like a house would if you gave it a bad foundation. I want my choices, which ultimately become my habits, to give me a solid foundation. That way, come hail or high wind, I won’t crumble. I don’t want fair weather health; I want to withstand the storms.

Lay your bricks, friends.

I’m still feeling quite a lot better today, just some lingering nausea and this mild fever that refuses to exit the building. I’m planning to gently peddle my bike this evening while I catch up on some lives. All available appendages crossed that I test negative tomorrow and can get back in the gym!