Goof Troop and Seeing Paradise

I've got this Goof Troop grin on my face and I feel like I'm seeing the world for the first time. Well, I kind of am seeing the world for the first time this week, due to the fact that I ended up getting glasses last Wednesday and it is HORRIFYING how blind I actually am. I was walking out of the store after picking up my new lenses and I could see! I could read prices, see logos, and focus on colors! I noticed things! I read things! I thought to myself, "Am I really that much of a procrastinator that I went for years knowing that I needed to get new glasses - but just didn't!?" Yes, apparently, I am. My sister used to make fun of me for being oblivious to things and sure, maybe I am oblivious, but maybe I didn't notice things because I couldn't see! Wow, that's a truth bomb.


And they are kind of intellectual looking. I feel like I should strike a "The Thinker" pose. Yessshh, yessshh.

I've started thinking that part of being  a responsible adult has something to do with taking care of things when they arise. I maintain that I will continue to act like an 8 year old, seeing the world for the first time, until I'm on my deathbed, but "taking care of business" might not just be a Bachman Turner Overdrive thing, but also a "make life more clear" kind of thing - literally and figuratively speaking.

Procrastination no longer gets me half a volcano experiment in the 7th grade science fair; it tends to have larger implications. However, I think that it has a little bit to do with priorities too. When I would head back home for Christmas break, summer break, or Thanksgiving, it was a lot more important for me to grab lunch with friends than hang out for an hour with the optometrists, despite my parent's dedication to making appointments for me with the dentist, doctor, and every other health practitioner upon my arrival home. I always picked catching up with friends over putting in face time with Dr. Shinn. Well, sorry eyes - a tall mocha with a side order of gossip was in order and you didn't make the cut.

So, I'm joining the glasses wearing population. I'm four eyed and I'm still overwhelmed by how much I can see. Now, taking off my glasses makes things blurry - what's that all about? Oh, it means my eyes are getting accustomed to sight and it's weird!

Priorities, priorities, priorities. I guess we learn that procrastination stems from our decisions regarding what is and is not important to us. I've learned from my students that sometimes they don't actually think that worksheets about the religious conflict in Northern Ireland are as important as I do. Thus, they procrastinate completing them until the moment I ask for the assignment to be turned in - at which point a xerox copier would have a hard time competing with the efficiency of my high school students.

I'm learning to deal with things as they come. If there is something that I need to get done, I'm trying to do it right then. I'm doing this in hopes of reducing the baggage of concerns or preoccupations I have. Keeping my list of things I need to take care of as limited as possible, I believe, will give me more clarity on each issue as it arises. I know that I need to respond to an e-mail for work, so I do. Then, it is over and I can be focused on the next thing. Spring cleaning of the mind....starting in August...so, "End of Summer Cleaning of the Mind"....or something like that. :)

I was wandering around for years knowing that I should go see the eye doctor and although I didn't think about it every second of every day, it was still a task that was lingering on my ever present "to do list". We live in such a cluttered world - sometimes working with the individual pieces that we should or ought to take care of can seem overwhelming, but taking care of things, piece by piece, results in a beautiful image, like a mosaic, that with eye glasses and a Goof Troop smile, I can finally see.