Don't Sweat the Big Stuff

Some people say 'don't sweat the small stuff'. What a lot of those people imply when saying this is that we shouldn't 'sweat' or worry about the small stuff, but instead should worry about the big stuff. I assume that the people who imply this haven't read the book either (I haven't but I know the book is not really implying this) and so I am going to run with this oft-quoted meaning of the phrase.

What these people think we should be sweating about is a mystery to me but I think 'they' are wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

Why do I think these people are wrong? Allow me to tell you.

There are some small things in life that really shit me and get on my goat...

Like Dave leaving a dirty bowl or dish sitting in the sink, directly under the tap. Man that shits me! Seriously, if you're not gonna put the fricking bowl in the dishwasher then at least move it out of the way of the tap, so I can rinse something or get a glass of water without having to move your dirty dish out of the way and get manky dirty-dish-water all over my fingers when I move it. And for the love of God, please don't leave one on either side of the sink, not even giving me the option of using the second side of the sink! Just stop it!...

Like people leaving one square of toilet paper hanging over the roll in a shared bathroom. Just use that last square and change that mother-flippin' roll, for Pete's sake! No-one has ever sustained brain-damage from changing an empty toilet roll. And if they have? Well, I suspect they may have already had some form of brain damage to begin with!...

Like really out of date advertising on the back of buses. Sitting in traffic is boring enough without having to see crappy old advertisements for The X Factor series that finished 4 frigging months ago. Update that shit bitches!...

Like cockroaches. Seriously, why the fuck has someone not figured out a way to eradicate those little shits yet? Why!!!...

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Like people that drive along doing 70km/h in an 80 zone, and then, when the speed limit drops to 60km/h, CONTINUE TO DRIVE AT 70 FUCKING KMS AN HOUR! What. the Fuck. is with that!!! (Can you tell this one really pisses me off?!). Seriously sunshine, if you don't do the fecking speed limit when it's 80 then you sure as heck better do the speed limit when its 60 and don't fucking speed! 70km/h is not some magical cover-all speed to be used anywhere from school zones to motorways. Don't do it. Just don't!

I sweat this stuff because its fun to complain about, I feel much better when I have a little rant about it to Dave or you on the interwebs or facebook, and it's something we can all relate to.

In the end, the small stuff that we rant and swear about has an edge of humour to it. We can make fun of this crap and feel a little better getting our frustrations out there, knowing that we are not alone in our loathing of cockroaches and old bus advertising.

But the big stuff? Sometimes you can't sweat it. Shouldn't sweat it. Sometimes it's just a better idea, both mentally and emotionally, to just let it go.

Like that fucker, cancer. That evil bitch that took my Grandma. Took my Dad's friend. Took my friends father. Tried to take my cousin and tried to take my Dad. And is currently in the process of taking my friends Dad, my Aunty, my Uncle, and countless other people that undoubtedly you all know.

When I think about the amount of people that are affected by this insidious disease it does my head in. It breaks my heart in to a million tiny pieces and makes me weep for the pain, suffering and heartache that millions of people feel at the hands of cancer.

So I can't sweat it. I can't scream, yell or rant at anyone about it. I can't find anything humourous in it. So I don't sweat it. I support the people I know who are affected by it. And I donate as much money as I can to cancer research in the hope that one day no-one will have to sweat it and we can be rid of this bitch.

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I wrote this post last week before the shooting that happened in the US last Friday. That terrible, terrible tragedy is another thing that I just can't sweat. I spent all weekend thinking about those poor children. Those poor parents. Those poor surviving children who now have to deal with what they witnessed that day, the terror they felt. Those poor parents of the surviving children, who have to try and explain something that no parent should ever have to.

Things like this do my head in. I just can't understand how another human being can be so cruel to a fellow human being, let alone a child. A child. A sweet, innocent child. I couldn't help but dwell on the senselessness of it all weekend. As I think about the horror those children must have felt in their last seconds on earth, my heart breaks into a million pieces and I get so angry that someone could do this. I get so angry that someone must have had such a shitty life that they were driven to do this.

But eventually I have to let it go. I have to stop thinking about it, sweating it. Because if I didn't, it would pull me under.

There are many things that if I sweated them, and I thought about them and worried about them, they would pull me down in to a deep, dark, cesspit of horrible thoughts and emotions. So I do what I can, I donate money, food or time, I buy things to support the cause. I hug my little girl tighter, and make sure I make her days as happy as they can be. I make practical changes in my own life, like changing how I eat or spend my money, so that I can have a clearer conscious and be able to sweat the small stuff, knowing that in the grand scheme of life, the big stuff will one day, hopefully, be worked out, and the millions of people who don't have a choice but to sweat this big stuff everyday won't have to any more.

This may seem like denial, or a callous attitude, maybe an immature attitude to some, but it's how I deal. How I cope. I don't live in total denial, and I don't stick my head in the sand. But I do what I can and I have to know that to the best of my ability I've done what I could.

If I sweat the big stuff I'll go mad.So I sweat the small stuff, so I can get my rant on, blow off a little of the steam that the big stuff has built-up within me, and swear a little (or a lot!) in the process.

I don't sweat the big stuff, so I can keep my heart intact.

On this last #IBOT I want to wish you all have a very Merry Christmas and a super Happy New Year. I hope and pray that you aren't having to sweat big stuff in your life right now, and if you are? My wish is that 2013 brings you a break from the big stuff, a chance to relax, have some happiness, and maybe, just maybe, have a day where the worst thing you have to worry about is dirty dishes in the sink and old advertising on the back of buses.

Linking this post up, as I do almost every Tuesday (my absence last week was unavoidable I'm sorry!) with the awesome Jess over at Essentially Jess for I Blog on Tuesday. Because blogging on Tuesday is da bomb and you should totally do it! Just not next week though, coz it's Christmas bitches! Christmas!