My mouse began to find her voice again in the unlikeliest of places: the gym.Īfter an initial phase of “newbie gains” - the swift improvements that many people experience when they begin exercising - it became clear that I’d have to be intentional to make future progress. If my inner mouse really wanted a cookie - both literally and figuratively - there was no way I could hear her. I should measure my thighs every Saturday. By the time I was a teenager, the intuitive vocabulary of desire was replaced by the much headier should. I began keeping quiet when I wanted something, and in time stopped hearing the little voice that imagined my wants and needs. What a hassle to keep giving the mouse what it wanted! Rather, it was the story of a rodent - a nuisance - causing trouble. It was no longer an empowering and magical tale. The message in the story of the mouse became muddled. Somewhere along the way, my instinct to ask for what I want in life got mixed up with the message that there was such a thing as wanting too much. I asked for what I wanted and pointed to this literary example when my mom cocked an eyebrow to give me her signature “look.” I’m sure she was amused that her first-born was becoming her own person: It’s a powerful feeling to recognize what you want and then ask for it, even when there’s no guarantee you’ll get it. Inspired, I heeded my inner mouse-voice, a squeaky little thing. Oh, how this resonated with my 6-year-old self - to want one thing was to want so many other things! Do you remember the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? It was my favorite picture book as a child: the tale of the little mouse who requested a cookie - and the ruckus it caused after he got it.Īs the story goes, if you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk, then a straw, a nail scissors, a broom, a nap, a story read to him, supplies to draw a picture, space to hang it on the fridge, another glass of milk, and, finally, another cookie.
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