On vacation recently, we happened to meander into a shop on the main drag of the small town where we were staying. It was full of chotchkies.
Within no time we were chuckling, then roaring–we even took a picture!
“Your crazy is showing. You might want to tuck that back in.”
We laughed . . . because of the matter-of-factness of the statement.
Because we’ve seen the crazy in ourselves, in others we know and love and work with.
Because we know the experience of both thinking we should and feeling like we don’t want to ‘tuck it back in.”
We should tuck our crazy in, at times, since we live and work with others. Our ‘crazy’ could negatively impact and influence others. So, we consciously tuck.
We shouldn’t tuck our crazy since it could be reflecting our most authentic, creative, even signature offer to the world, a gift to all around us. So no, no tucking here.
This faux wood, I’d-never-put-this-on-my-wall, chotchkie had playfully interrupted my common sense, that automatic flow of how we see and engage with the world. It caused me to pause a moment and reflect and laugh.
Pausing interrupts our automatic reactions to life. Pausing allows our minds and bodies to take a break, to re-set, and to be with life as it is–even if it’s a bit crazy.
And, let’s admit it, we all have a bit of crazy in us. I’m not convinced we should tuck it back in at all, rather we should celebrate it!
Try this: As you go through your day today, simply stop, pause, drop your attention to your breath at your belly, and take three deep breaths. Take a step back, (yes, literally crazy, I know), and look around you. Do this twice per day for the next week.
Ask yourself, what’s the crazy here, in this moment? What are my automatic thoughts about the moment? Can I drop them and be open to this new moment, crazy as I might think it is? What’s the humor here? Should I tuck or no?