“thankfully, we can always put on our other favourite band’s records and get on with things.  it’s an innocent little coping mechanism, but we always take those songs for granted.”

these two small sentences jumped out at me while reading an article in the nov/dec 2011 frankie magazine (if this isn’t on your reading radar got onto it) … the jist of the article was about moving past a little moment of life disappointment and how one goes about doing it.  in the instance of the author, it is listening to records for someone else it may be dancing or maybe painting.

i got to thinking about what are my own innocent little coping mechanisms, the vices i use when i get busy, slip, hiccup or blindsided by taking something, someone or some place for granted … what havens of refuge do i indulge in to get me back on track, to carry me through this crazy-mad, beautiful world?  there are several things actually …

philosophy … because it enriches my worldview.

poetry … because beautiful prose evokes an emotional elegance in the way in which i think.

meditation … because it is a healthy way of releasing without having to rewind.

a cup of tea … because it is a moment of solitude, sipping up good karma.  

yoga … because sirsha-asana (headstand posture) builds both my upper body and mental strength, balancing myself upside down so that i don’t fall down.

flirting with self-delusion … because an innocent sense of altruism prepares me for the things that will be hurtful, inevitably difficult.

reading as procrastination … because books is where imagination and reality collide.

cooking … because i am learning that the kitchen is the most comforting room in the world.

a long walk … because losing myself in fresh air is intoxicatingly cleansing for this senseless wanderer.

a messy cry … because i have never been ashamed to express myself.

letter writing … because i can’t always have a conversation with myself – sometimes it is lovely to share my thoughts with someone else.

a conversation with a stranger … because listening to someone elses situation can help put my own – and life for that matter – into perspective.

and finally, running in the rain … because nature and exercise really does wash it all away.

i suppose those are it, my mechanisms for coping – navigating through the bad day(s) because even madly-beautiful, we all experience them.  embrace then release.  some can do it with ease while others battle relentlessly to let go. 

for me, i need these mechanical muses.  happiness is transient but fulfilment is perpetual.  and with a little bit of self-awareness, emotional logic and acceptance life is genuinely okay – innocently delicate, fanstatically crazed.