A friend sent me this a few days ago and I still do this as an automatic.
I remember on Saturdays when some of us gals would go off to lunch after blitz cleaning our homes to “do lunch” and a friend would ride with me. Occasionally a nutty driver would pull out in front of me and I’d sharply brake and my arm would come out to safe guard my front seat passenger.
“Momma Mode,” my friend once quipped and we laughed.
I’ve worn seat belts since the day I first started driving, you sure won’t be taking that “automatic” out of me in this lifetime.
It is the same auto pilot as which sock do you put on first, which sleeve you put your arm through first. How you comb your hair, how you brush your teeth, how you hold your pen. You’ve learned these things a half a century ago and you just do it.
I was amused once when I went back to college after 12 years out making a living with my typing skills and needed to type a piece for the college paper deadline. I asked permission to slip into the typing lab to type it and get it to the editor within a half an hour.
The teacher recognized me from other classes I’d taken in the business section of the college and she nodded permission. She lingered in the hall way as I slipped into the room to a station in the back row and proceeded to zip a piece of paper into the IBM Selectric typewriter and quickly started to type copy from my notes.
The class was entry-level typists and most of the students turned and looked at me, but one young gal simply gushed out loud, “Wow you sure can type . . . fast!”
I chuckled and not even looking up or skipping a beat at what I was typing said, “You will type like this one day.”
When I left the typing lab the teacher gave me a big smile and a thumbs up - I believe I inspired at least one student.
I do
most things by rote or habit these days.
Take a moment and sit back, reflect and be grateful that you have abilities that you don’t have to learn fresh every day. Simple routines you can fall back on and “coast” through life, like cooking your favorite recipes from memory.
As one gets older we need to be grateful for what we can still do extremely well and be easy on ourselves when we aren’t as sharp at certain things from lack of use.
Skills need to used to keep them from rusting. So, this is my challenge to you, dust off a skill you haven’t used in a while and bring it back up to your high standards.
This morning I dusted off my creative painting skills. It has been a long while, but I am pleased with the results.
