YOU ARE NO GOOD TO OTHERS UNTIL YOU ARE GOOD TO YOURSELF

I was up at 5, making my breakfast and exercising by 5:25. By 5:55 my 7 minute egg was done, but I was still only halfway through the exercise. So I ate part of the egg on toast while finishing the routine.

Routine. Defined as a sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program.

"I settled down into a routine of work and sleep”.

Just work and sleep? Kill me now.

I need to take time for me. That is why I get up early. That is why I type out these posts with my right index finger on a mini-I pad. This is my part of the day. For me.

I met a young woman from Japan when I worked for the flax oil company. She was an exchange student. Her named was Tomoe, but she said instead of Tomato, to call her Apple. So we did. Apple was a breath of fresh air to our routine, unfailingly optimistic and grateful. Apparently there are more characters in Hundred Acre wood than the sad donkey with his tail pinned on.

Apple only worked with us for a month or two, then she went back to Japan. She is a talk show celebrity working in television, and she also got married this past year. I follow her on Facebook, which is one of the best things about social media, the ability to maintain some kind of peripheral relationship after approximately 15 years.

One of her recent posts says, “ 💡 In a modern day where too much information, I also felt the importance of knowing myself so that the voices around me don't wipe out my "like" out of my life, and what makes me feel like myself, and what is enough. 😌✨”

YOU ARE NO GOOD TO OTHERS UNTIL YOU ARE GOOD TO YOURSELF.

You can’t be your best self for others if you don’t take the “me time” to first be good to yourself. My “me time” is writing. For you it may be yoga, or a walk by the ocean, making a pie, or reading a book, or intentional breathing ( as opposed to emotional eating.)

It is not always narcissistic to think of yourself. There are times when one needs to be more selfish, and stake out your own time.

Make your ME TIME part of your routine.

I thank all of you for reading and sharing. There is more words to be written, more thoughts to be said, and more songs yo be sung, so I will keep writing. Much love and Happy New Year. Keep punching!