I was raised in Ohio where mud is a neutral brown clay that clings heavily to your boots and slows you down. Slogging through mud makes you very tired. Every day when dealing with the "maintenance" side of life, it’s as though I am slogging through mud. Even just picturing my day with patches of "mud" between me and my goals makes me tired.
Mental mud can be any task I think I have to complete before I get to do what I want. Mud shows up as appointments on my calendar, incomplete projects or anything I have to do first. Even fun things like lunch dates with friends can become mud, if they come between me and my goals. After slogging through mud all day, it’s no wonder I need a nap!
Once I got just how real mud was in my life, I started noticing it in the moment and saying what i saw to myself: “You think showering is mud. So is making orange juice. Eating breakfast is mud. Piles of mail, more mud…”
As a reminder, I filled a jar with mud from the garden and sat it on my desk for comparison, “Mail / mud. Phone call / mud. Lunch / mud…” It helped to be able to tell the difference; but until I realized I didn’t see a difference, I couldn’t have said it.
Then it hit me. There was grace hidden in the analogy. Since I worked at home, everything in my day actually had the same priority. It was all the same except for what I wanted – my goals – and it was up to me to say. The mud story saved me from ever having to say what I wanted. (Refer to post 6/13/08 "Wanting Something.")