Bohemian B’s Beat

‘Curb your enthusiasm’

Bubbles... I love bubbles; I love butterflies to, but let’s talk about bubbles.  Bubbles are light, reflect the light, float up into the abyss and look so pretty and produce happy thoughts.  (Well they do for me anyway.)  I have been known to be a bit eccentric, (which I practice with enthusiasm) in just about every area you can imagine, unfortunately my temper falls into one of those categories.  I try to manage it - I have gotten better over the years and try to bite my tongue as much as possible.  I try to respond rather than react and even though I do manage to accomplish this often enough, there are the horrifically horrendous times when I fail... epically.  I normally blame my ‘outbursts’ on one of my many colourful personalities, I call them ‘the one’s we do not speak of’, but at the end of the day, it’s still me.

   I was having one of these tornado moments the other day when my daughter interrupted my ‘storm in a tea-cup’, and told me to say the word ‘Bubbles’... well, needless to say, that stopped me in my tracks, ‘bubbles’, of all the things she could say, that was her request.  I decided to humour her and said, “Bubbles”.   “You see,” she explained, “there is no possible way to say bubbles in an angry or nasty tone of voice”.  Obviously that stopped the tornado of a temper outburst in its tracks.

   How often have I heard or witnessed ‘up-standing’ citizens lose their cool, with car guards, shop attendants, tele-marketers, co-workers (Bohemian lowers her head in shame), spouses, kids and the list goes on and on.  I understand pressure, frustration, stress, exhaustion and all the negative elements which can drive any ‘sane’ person over the edge of sanity and politeness.  For instance, our horror 4 x4 trails throughout town (which is an immense frustration for everyone but even more so for ordinary working-class people such as myself, who drive low suspension vehicles, and cannot afford monthly, sometimes weekly, vehicle repairs).  These adventure trail roads of ours are certainly enough to raise so much more than a ‘storm-in–a-tea-cup’ kind of irrational rage. However, most of us have ranted and raved and complained and threatened and begged and pleaded for these roads to be maintained properly, all to no avail.  Yes, this makes us mad, or rather M-A-D!!  So this is what I’m thinking and what I am going to make a point of trying to practice, instead of losing my cool and subjecting others to the wrath of B, not only ruining the harmony and the prospect of solving the problem in a ‘humane’ manner, but also running the risk of looking like an irrational idiot.  Yes, that is what you to look like when you lose your cool, it’s not supposed to look pretty.  I’m going to say, “Bubbles”... a bunch of times even if need be.

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles.........nope, no possible way to say that harshly without evoking at least a smile.  Now here’s the beauty of this, once you do manage to produce a smile on your wricked up and beetroot red, angered face ( trying a little giggle here could award you with more happy endorphin brownie points) your ‘you-ness’ gets the message that you are in fact now happy, and no longer a danger to the environment and unsuspecting victims.  Happy endorphins break out in a funky hip-hop dance and your ‘you-ness’ is flooded with bubble-like happiness.  Now, not only will you (me) handle the situation at hand in a much better and enlightened manner, you will be causing no harm (or no more harm than necessary) to the situation at hand as well as preserving your own sanity, protecting yourself from all the negativity and ugliness which goes hand in hand with anger outbursts.

   You might even find that the problem can be fixed with minimal discomfort and trauma, and you could be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.  So go on... give it a try... all together now in 3-2-1... “BUBBLES!”  See, easy peasy... quite frankly I’d rather look silly saying ‘bubbles’ and provoking joy than look silly by ‘throwing my toys out the cot’.  So, herewith, my sincere apologies for all my toys lying around, they will now be replaced by bubbles.

Glitter (and bubble) greetings and all things shiny

Bohemian B