“The older you get, the more rules they are going to try to get you to follow.  You just gotta keep on livin’, man.  L-I-V-I-N.”  Wooderson, a/k/a Matthew McConaughey – Dazed and Confused. 

While from an unlikely source, Wooderson hit the nail on the head.  As a teenager, I can remember most, if not all, of my teenage wonderland struggles arising from my parents’ or my school’s rules.  Whether the rule was no gum in class, no jeans with holes, clean your room, do your homework before watching television, don’t date older guys (that one hurt), or be home by curfew, rules seemed to be central to my coming of age. 

Now fast forward a few years….ok….more than a few years.  All of my parents’ and school’s rules are relics of a time gone by / forgotten age.  I’m completely free to chew gum, wear jeans with holes, keep a messy room, and stay out as long as I like.  Yet, it seems as though I now have ten times the rules that I had as a teenager, albeit most, if not all, are self-imposed. 

Pick up the house, take out the trash, go to the gym, be at work by 8 am, conference call, conference call, draft, draft, draft, feed the cat, take a shower, get to be so that I can get up for the gym.  My hectic schedule has become my new set of rules – and I don’t even have kids!

Looking back, I now realize how few rules I actually had, and even the few rules that did exist were pretty simple and easy to follow.  The rules we live by today are not only more complicated, but seem to induce more stress as well.  As I struggle with the ever-increasing need to add more hours to the day, I am starting to recognize the importance of maintaining a healthy life balance.  In order to do that, the need to say “no” becomes inevitable.  We simply cannot do all the things we are asked or feel compelled to do.  At some point, we have to figure out what things are the most important to us and draw a line in the sand.

Different people of course draw the line in the sand at different places.  But for most of us, myself included, family and friends universally rank near the top.  Keeping with that spirit, my mother and I started www.TenderTidings.com.  Now I watch with teenage-like enthusiasm as friends, family, working moms, working dads, grandparents, and nannies use Tender Tidings to help draw their own line in the sand. 

Keep on L-I-V-I-N.