The Experiment: Day 245 ~ Because Sometimes Life Just Isn’t That Complicated!

I have been at a loss…

The last few weeks after running the dishwasher upon opening it I was confronted with a dishwasher half full of sudsy bubbles! I was horrified. Stumped. I had no clue what was happening or what I was supposed to do. I imagined terrible problems requiring an expensive visit from a repairman.

I asked my friend Noni what I should do. She seems to know what to do about pretty much everything. I rely on Noni for this. I have confidence in her. She hadn’t a clue. She said I should Google it, or maybe there was something on YouTube.

I only run the dishwasher about once a week because it’s just me here and I don’t use many dishes so I kept hoping it would go away, magically, that it was just a fluke. Magical thinking is something I employ during the best and worst of times. But when I ran the dishwasher again there they were, all those bubbles. I imagined having to get a new dishwasher and I don’t have the money for that.

Then, yesterday, I sat here thinking. I really hadn’t had this problem before the last few weeks. What was different? I had purchased new dishwasher soap at Costco. It was right next to the Cascade dishwasher detergent but it was Costco’s brand, cheaper, which I usually buy. Hmmm…

For some reason I had the first bright idea I’d had in weeks. I went in and pulled the big plastic container of liquid soap out. It said, “Dishwashing Liquid — DO NOT PUT IN ELECTRIC DISHWASHERS.” Seriously? I have been running my dishwasher with the wrong kind of soap and I hadn’t a clue. This was no major malfunction requiring a repairman or endless Google searches. It was the wrong kind of soap. To say I felt like a nimbus is an understatement. I burst out laughing. I texted Noni and there were a flurry of crazy laughing emojis back and forth. Dishwashing liquid. Today, after therapy, I will get the right kind of soap for the dishwasher. I wish everything could be cleared up that easily.

Or can’t it?

I have nearly had a nervous breakdown this week over all this mess over the European Privacy Laws and the mailing list and whatnot. I’ve done what I can now and it will all be over tomorrow. It has seemed so complicated, and surely it has been because it has been made SUCH A BIG DEAL. And how many other things in life do we complicate, always expecting the worst possible outcome, the most difficult solution, when maybe we are just “using the wrong kind of soap.”

Starting today I am going to look for the simplest, easiest solution to my problems first. That doesn’t mean that sometimes more might not be required, but I think looking for the easier solution first might take us far. In my life I have been one who lived in so much fear, with so much anxiety, and a penchant toward catastrophizing, never imagining there could be a simple solution, that I have spent a good deal of my life in agony. I am going to take a new tact. I am going to try to remember that there might always be an easy solution. I’m going to assume that there is and not panic. I’m going to remember the soap. I think I might save myself a whole lot of trouble.

The Experiment ~A 365 Day Search For Truth, Beauty &
Happiness: Day 1 ~ Introduction To The Project
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
Yoda

Comments

  1. katya taylor says

    ha ha – this is wonderful maitri –bubbles!!

    to be dispassionate toward our troubles, to stand apart as a witness, is a good practice. maybe without the fear/angst/worry, the right solution may miraculously appear.

    The sun shines, the tomatoes grow ever taller, the cucumbers put out flowers,
    if only human life were so organically programmed — or maybe it is and we haven’t
    learned to read the invisible ink!

    xo
    ka

    • Yes Ka, Bubbles!

      And what I wonder is why our mind wants to complicate things? It really does like to do that. But this lesson will stay with me for a long time.

      I imagine if you are getting the rain that we are your garden is growing like gangbusters. You’ll be overrun with tomatoes and cucumbers in a heartbeat! Enjoy!

      Hugs,

      M. xoxox

  2. Oh, can I relate to all that, Maitri. I have a PhD in worrying, something I’ve truly perfected. Soap is a wonderful metaphor. I just watched the Bob Newhart sketch Susan referred to last night. “Stop It” is a deliciously funny video. Now I have two new responses to my worry button, “Soap” and “Stop It”.

    • Ah Cathryn, I think I got my PhD the same place YOU did! 😀

      And wasn’t Susan’s session wonderful last night? And you’ve just reminded me, I’m going to go listen to Bob Newhart now! I think I’ll need to bookmark that and return to it often!

      I love you honey, hope we can chat again soon… 🙂

      Hugs,

      Maitri

  3. Dear Maitri, So happy you only had bubbles. I love blowing bubbles. One Halloween we got a bubble machine from the local toy store and we set it out and let it blow bubbles. The children loved it!
    I am like you, catastophicating everything. (Is that the right word?) Last night we were sitting here watching TV and Bernie got up and gingerly looked behind the tv. “What are you looking for?” I asked. “I’m not sure, I thought I saw something move.” He couldn’t see anything so he sat back down. A few minutes later he leaped up and said, “There it is!” I felt myself wanting to run.”What is it?” “I think it’s a mouse,” he
    answered. “Oh crap”, I thought silently. To make a long story shorter,
    we were playing hide and seek with a little mouse for a couple of hours.
    He put up barricades so the mouse wouldn’t get behind the TV again and we left the front door open a bit hoping it would run outside. He hid behind the piano that is near the front door. “Talk to him,” I suggested. “Tell him to go outside.” So he did and although mousie would move toward the
    door a few times, then go back behind the piano he eventually left. BUT
    at 3:30 I woke up and went to my recliner but visions of mice running around in the dark kept me awake for a couple of hours.”
    (catastrophicating) Now we have an electronic mouse catcher all set up, so maybe that will be the end – although we read that when you see one mouse know they don’t live alone. (sigh).
    I think we both need a couple of relaxing days… what do you think?
    Love, Jean

  4. Oh Dear Jean, it’s lovely, first of all, that you had a bubble machine, I just know the children loved it…

    But… oh dear… MOUSE STORIES…

    YOURS was gentle. I have a dreadful mouse story…

    I was 9 months pregnant with our first child and we had just moved into a new (To US, it wasn’t a new house!) house. One night we heard a mouse. My husband set a trap. The next night we heard the most awful sound when we were watching t.v. There was a SNAP!!! and a terrible squealing sound. My husband ran in and the mouse had indeed been caught in the trap, was badly hurt, but not killed. He didn’t want to see it suffer SO HE TOOK A BOARD AND BEAT THE POOR THING TO DEATH!!!! I was so traumatized I never got over it!

    We never had mouse problems again but to this day I’d rather have them running all over my house than to set traps!

    I am NOT a good person to ask for mouse advice!!!

    Sigh…

    Maitri

    • So sorry Maitri for bringing up that horrible memory for you. Ours is not that kind of mouse trap. Yes of course you were traumatized. Hugs.

      • Jean, well, while it was absolutely terrible it kind of makes me laugh now in an “OH MY GOD THAT WAS SO AWFUL!!!” kind of way. Sigh, that was fall 1976, I’ve gotten over it, but I will never forget it! 😀

  5. Yes, I always know the answer is something silly when I look high and low for an answer that isn’t coming. (Hugs)

    • Yep Suzanne, I must remember that my penchant for over-complicating things doesn’t serve me well! It might just be “the wrong kind of soap!” Good thing to remember! 😀

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