sayings

As this little gem from Miss Piggy proves, it can be helpful to have a few little go-to sayings to get you through the day. 

‘All things must pass’ is a favourite of mine (thanks for that, George Harrison) as it comes very much in handy when on a delayed train journey, or facing a hard day or whilst chewing a bad choice of jelly bean. Of course, I like it a lot less when I’m doing something I really enjoy, like going on holiday or eating a bar of Fruit and Nut, but one must take the rough with the smooth.

‘Everything will look better in the morning‘ is another classic (thank you mum). And it’s true, except in the case of my fringe (if that were to have a phrase it would be ‘Everything will look weirdly eighties in the morning and need to be rinsed under a tap’). As somebody who loves to get angry late at night about things that a) don’t really matter and b) definitely cannot be resolved when everybody is so tired they can no longer see, I know that on the few occasions when I have managed to hold off mentioning them until the next day, my feelings have diminished significantly thanks to sleep. All of a sudden the washing basket no longer looks like OUR HOUSE IS ABOUT TO BE DROWNED IN PANTS! and more like p’raps we should pop a wash on, when we’ve got a mo.

And the third, which has scored a new high position on my list of late, is: ‘There is always more to it’. Allow me to demonstrate what this means through the use of an example:

When we were at university I rang my now-husband, then early-stage, absolutely-no-idea-what-he-was-letting-himself-in-for boyfriend, for some advice about a piece of work I was doing. Due to poor phone reception in his house, he used to have to walk down the road to talk to me (a level of effort one can only muster in the early days of a relationship) but on this occasion he didn’t do that, he just let the line continue to break whilst I rambled on about my work until I eventually said “Can you please just go outside, I am struggling with this essay that I have had eight weeks to write but have not started until now!” And then in a low and patient voice he said: “I dislocated my knee tonight, so I’m sorry but I can’t really walk.”

Like I said, there is always more to it. (And may I also recommend asking somebody how they are when you ring them, before launching into your demands).

I realise now that this statement applies to pretty much everything. When I don’t hear from a friend for a while, I am quick to wonder if perhaps they’ve decided that they no longer want to hang out with me, and that the joke I made last time we met up wasn’t funny at all, and just proved that I am a moron. Now, this could happen (my jokes are not always that well thought through although I ALWAYS laugh) but it’s more likely that people are just busy trying to deal with their lives – I know I am. If I haven’t replied to your email, or suggested a date to meet up or realised that just thinking about my response to a text message is not the same as actually sending one, it’s because there are other things going on that are keeping me from you, not some malicious intent to be ignorant. Who has time to incorporate that into their day?

Similarly when I’m ready to accuse my other half of purposely failing to replace the milk due to some long-held desire to deprive me of calcium, or of ignoring the pile of dishes in the kitchen because he believes I ‘enjoy’ cleaning up all our shite, I must remember that everything is not necessarily as it seems and that I should definitely wind my ridiculous neck in. 

As always, we have to remember that most things just aren’t about us. There’s always more to it, and all we can do is learn to remember that, to ask how people are, and to pause before going completely barmy about something that probably has a perfectly reasonable explanation.

If somebody could just please remind me of that the next time it’s 11pm and I’ve noticed that there’s a toilet roll that still hasn’t been changed, I’d very much appreciate it…

And if you have any other little sayings like this that you find handy, I’d love to hear them!