Know yourself: part three

Since my work revolves around caring for my home and family and being chauffeur-in-chief, my time is mostly my own.  The appointments and grocery shopping and errands and laundry and home school and dishes and dusting and Everything Else, happen when I want them to.  (Or they don't happen even when I want them to because I choose to do something else instead.)

Since I am in charge of myself, I like nothing more than a (long) to do list.

My parents are doers.  They are task oriented and I am their daughter.  Once Adam and I had a conversation that I think was enlightening to how we plan our discretionary time.  We talked about what the measure of a good day was, a day we felt good about.  His was a day spent in some sort of recreation with our family.  Mine was a day in which I accomplished a lot.  (You can tell which of us is more fun to be around.)

This doesn't, of course, mean that Adam never accomplishes things or that I don't have fun (although I'm not that good at it, really).  It does mean that since I know I need to be a little enterprising to be happy, I can plan for meaning, even in our recreation.

Recently we were planning a weekend getaway.  We batted several ideas back and forth.  Finally I remembered this key element of my personality.  I explained it to Adam.  I wanted to do something with meaning.  I wanted to see something new or interesting.  I wanted to learn something.  I wanted to look at beauty.  He wanted to do something fun.  We found the perfect compromise.  We went to the Oregon Coast.  It felt like the perfect itinerary.  I saw interesting and new things.  I drank in beauty.  Adam and the kids splashed their crazy selves in frigid water.

We were all happy.  Our needs were met, authentically.