How to Stop Obsessing
Do you ever find yourself obsessing about the most nonsensical and meaningless decisions like what color towels to put in your bathroom? Your reasonable side knows that whatever you pick will be good enough. You know that there’s not one “right” choice. Still, against your better judgement you lose perspective. You think, there MIGHT be a magical towel color if I simply look at enough options and dedicate enough space in my brain to this one thing in my life I can control right now.
Yeah, you’re not really worried about towels in these instances, right? The thinking about towels and looking for towels is helping you avoid something else. Well, usually. At least that’s what happens to me.
For Brain, Child Magazine this week I wrote “The Perfect Double Stroller and Gaining Perspective.”
It’s about one of my obsessing-about-nonsense lows, which involved the embarrassing level of research and attention that went into my purchase of a double stroller back in 2006. I also explain how that episode was so clearly NOT about strollers, which was why it gave my husband and me a shorthand expression to use when I’m losing perspective about something meaningless again. At this point in my life (two more kids later) it’s usually a social situation, not a material purchase. I can go on and on about a situation and he simply has to say “double stroller” for me to see that I’ve taken a turn into the land of no good once again. And trust me, we have several shorthand expressions for his unnecessary obsessing too. But he’s not the shameless blogger in the family so I am not at liberty to share them.
IN OTHER WRITING NEWS . . .
A short story of mine called “For the Love of Bubbie Fay” was published this week in an Israeli literary journal called The Ilanot Review. I’m MUCH more self-conscious sharing my fiction than my non-fiction, but my skin has grown quite thick over the years. So here goes . . . I’m going to tell you what the story is about and you can decide if it interests you enough to click over. (I’ll never know either way, so don’t worry.)
“For the Love of Bubbie Fay” includes:
- Cousins in a Jewish family trying to navigate their relationship with a critical, unpredictable grandmother.
- One family member who converts to Christianity. (She’s a major character.) One who becomes a more religious Jew. (He’s a very minor character.)
- An over-the-top Disney princess themed Bat Mitzvah.
- A question of what to name a baby girl. (You know I love baby names.)
I haven’t had any fiction published since 2011, so this story feels especially exciting to me. I’m slightly more motivated to work on one of the half-finished stories on my computer.
Wishing you all a great week! Nina 🙂
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