Both Sides

Image courtesy of chomikuj

I think Joni Mitchell had it right. 

"...and now my friends are acting strange.

They shake their heads and they tell me that I've changed.

But something's lost and something's gained

in living everyday."

There is a part of me who is very, very conservative.  I love to stay home, clean the bathrooms, and do my laundry.  I like to prepare home-cooked meals from leafy greens and protein-rich grains.  I drink the same coffee from Starbucks nearly every single time I go there.  I like to read.  I like the idea of living in Ontario.  I like the idea of roots.

And there is another part of me who throws caution to the wind: who hitchhikes in France; who gets stuck in the snow in Croatia; who follows a couple from Asia to Europe at midnight in Istanbul to get to a mouse-infested hostel.

I like staying put, growing roots, planting myself firmly in one place.  I also like packing a red backpack and venturing out to a new place.  Something is lost and something is gained, surely.  It's a fine line; a fine balance.   

Image courtesy of All Things Stylish

It's a balance and that's all it is.  It's a life.  As Frank Passaro used to say, "It is what it is."  It's not any better and it's not any worse.  It's not any bigger and it's not any smaller.  It's the choice I make everyday to explore something new or relax in something old.  Either way, it's growth in some direction.  Because every single time we make a choice to stay or go, uproot or extend roots, we are growing...

and we are improving.