Everyday there are things we do that we don’t consciously think about. Putting the brush on the counter after we brush our hair. Placing the silverware in the sink after we use it. Putting our keys on the counter or table when we arrive home. Small little mundane things that are just habit or ritual.

This past week had been a study in how much I actually think about those mundane things before I do them without realizing it. At the present, we are in the middle of a kitchen remodel/wet bar/1/2 bathroom remodel. My kitchen is a empty cavernous room with electrical wires and the metal tube for the fan in the middle of the sub floor. The wet bar, which the previous owners put in a closet and we put our keys, mail and whatever other crap onto is gone. The bathroom is only a toilet. The only sink downstairs is the one in the garage. So needless to say, counter space is left to a white fold up table I bought at Costco that now holds a small microwave and toaster. (Pray for my sanity as I still have 2 weeks to go before we are put back to together. And that is only if everything goes according to schedule.)

My usual routine when I walk in the front door is to put my keys and purse on the wet bar. Yet there is no wet bar. So I have to rethink and set it in the office. I want to make some coffee. I realize then that as I get up my mind goes through the motions of each step of what I have to do to get that cup of coffee because it is no longer in the kitchen. It is in the office. (Let me tell you. My little cubicle of an office is very full right now! :P) So I have to rethink what I need to do. I want to make some toast for breakfast. Instantly my mind sees the kitchen (which is no longer there) and where the muffins and toaster are in the kitchen, (which again are no longer there. They are in the living and dining room among the boxes holding my kitchen). Then last but not least the knife I need to spread the peanut butter and honey on said muffin. (No silverware. We have plastic in baggies and now I’m hungry.)

Do you see where I’m going with this. Even while our mind is on something that may have happened at work or what we are doing this weekend, it is also working on opening the front door, putting the keys on the counter where they belong, taking off our shoes. We just don’t realize it until our world is disrupted and we have to change those routines. In a small way it’s kind of neat to realize how complex our minds are and what we can do with them if only given half a chance.

Have a great week. 🙂