Do You Have a Blue Mouse in Your Life?

Here it is, a few weeks into 2013! Are you through ruining checks by writing 2012 instead of 2013 for the date? Scientists claim it takes 21 days to establish a new habit, so hopefully by now you’re getting used to this fabulous New Year.

What do you want to happen in 2013? Is it the same as what you wanted to happen in 2012, but it didn’t? Maybe you’ve been going at it all wrong.

When I was young, Granny used to take my sister and me shopping in downtown Portland, Oregon. We’d catch the Greyhound bus out on the highway, (Granny didn’t drive), and it’d be an all-day outing. On the way home, the bus route always took us past an incredible, grand old theater (the Kind people like the Daughters of the American Revolution fight to restore). It had a huge marquis with millions of brilliant lights flashing out the word, “THE BLUE MOUSE.” It left us spellbound; but we were always tired and on our way home, so we couldn’t stop. Granny would say, “Next time we come to Portland we’re gonna go straight to The Blue Mouse and shop afterward.” The three of us pictured a non-stop medley of Walt Disney features: Pinocchio, Snow White, and Bambi, one right after the other. It would be an animated festival interrupted only briefly by Sylvester & Tweetie. I dreamt about it. I told Mom I was going. I saved for it. I waited, and waited and waited.

Eventually, next time turned to someday. I still thought about it, but not as often. And every once-in-awhile Granny would say, “We’ve got to go to The Blue Mouse!” Years passed. Granny’s feet were bothering her, so just my sister and I went shopping in Portland. We were both licensed drivers by then.
“Wanna go to The Blue Mouse?”
“No, I’ve got a date tonight.”
“You wanna just drive by it?”
“Sure, what street’s it on?”
“It’s right after the bus depot and just past Mannings.”
We saw the flashing lights in the distance. Maybe we could spare the time. As we got closer the lights caught less of our attention than the people lying on the sidewalk.
“Sissy, lock your door!”

The Blue Mouse had become an X-rated adult theater. Next door was a topless bar and a tattoo parlor. Across the street was a bookstore with black windows and a pawn shop boasting, Diamonds-Tackle-Guns. We were devastated. At what point did Pollyanna give way to Linda Lovelace? Granny never knew. We couldn’t spoil it for her. It was a beautiful dream and we heard her tell our children, “Someday, I’ll have your mom take us all over to The Blue Mouse.”

Maybe there’s a Blue Mouse in your life; something you’ve always wanted to do, or be or have and it hasn’t happened. Maybe you can take a little time while the year is still fresh and re-examine your dreams. Maybe you’ve outgrown some of them.

If you have heard yourself making the same promise to get organized over and over again, maybe you really don’t want to. Maybe you’ve allowed other people, television, magazines and movies to cause you to want things perfect and in your optimism, you were not realistic and you over dosed on the concept of getting organized.

The beginning of a new year makes us think we can transform every fault into a virtue and every fantasy into a reality, but there’s a side effect to that over dose. We can crash. The secret is to take each day as it comes and declare it a new beginning and celebrate it with the same fervor you celebrated on New Year’s Eve.

So today, let’s dump any blue mice we’ve collected and start being easy with ourselves. Let’s enjoying who we are, where we are and who we’re with, just as it is right now and watch 2013 blossom into the best year of our lives.