I was flipping through the newspaper the other day…
“Wait,” you say, “an actual newspaper?”
Why yes, that’s a funny story. I looked outside Sunday morning just as the lady who delivers the newspapers on this block backed up to my neighbor’s and tossed his two bundles mostly onto his driveway. I wondered why she was backing up, then realized there were two bundles on my driveway. I suppose she has extras in case of mistakes, because she didn’t bother to pick them back up.
Anyways, I noticed that while I read most sections of the newspaper like a book or magazine, from front to back, I treat the Sunday comics differently. I read the front page, flip them over and read the back, then open it up to read the insides. I have no idea when I started that.
Other habits are easier to pinpoint. I started carrying a spare pair of reading glasses in my purse – previously reserved for computer use – the time we ate lunch at a dimly lit TGI Friday’s and struggled with the menu. I started enjoying gardening (as opposed to just seeing it as a chore) when I was introduced to vegetable gardening; before that was just weeding and tree trimming. The inevitable gardening planning (a necessity for a project manager’s large garden) followed as the vegetable garden expanded, and is now scheduled for late winter/early spring every year. And as a habit, I sometimes just stand at the window and smile at my garden. (Really, I should go outside and pick some snow peas.)
If you take a moment for introspection, whether you recall how it started, what habit makes smile?