OMG Digital Magazine OMG Issue 267 13th July 2017 COMPLETE | Page 6

OMG Digital Magazine | 267 | Thursday 13th July 2017 • PAGE 6
SoulFood
The One
Thing You
Need to
Do for
Yourself
Every Day
By Elizabeth Gilbert
I grew up on a small family farm, with plants and
animals needing care in every direction, so vacations
were rare. But one summer my parents convinced a
neighboring farmer to tend to our goats and chickens
deserving of love. This gift of a freshly made bed was
not an insignificant act: It was a conscious handshake of
affection across time, a way of connecting the woman
of this moment to the woman of the future.
I have never forgotten this lesson.
while we got to go to the beach for a whole entire week.
On the morning we departed, my mother stripped her
bed, washed and dried the line ns, and remade the bed
perfectly, as if she were preparing it for a guest. I was
baffled. Nobody was going to be visiting while we were
away; why go to so much time and trouble?
“Oh,” my mother explained, when I asked why she
had bothered, “this is just a little present I’m giving my
future self. This way, when she comes home all tired and
worn-out at the end of her vacation, she’ll have the gift
of fresh, clean sheets waiting to welcome her back to
her own bed.”
“She,” my mother had said—not “I.” I found it striking
that she felt such friendly kindness toward the person
she would be. My mother’s current self clearly believed
that the stranger she’d become over the next week was
We are told to be kind and generous to ourselves, but
it’s not always easy. Often we don’t feel deserving. Often
we fail to act in our best interests in the chaos of the
present moment, denying ourselves loving tenderness.
We look in the mirror and think about every dumb thing
we’ve done or said today, and we decide, Well, there
stands a lousy piece of human garbage. Then comes the
punishment, which can be anything from binge eating
to taking other people’s abuse to blowing off our taxes.
When you hate yourself this much, why would you ever
make your bed? You’re basically a worthless dog who
deserves nothing better than to sleep on a pile of damp
rags.
But what about the person you will become in a week?
Or a month? Or a year? What about that innocent
stranger? What did she ever do that was so wrong?
What if you were able to regard your future self as a
deserving visitor worthy of affection and sympathy?
What if every single day you tried to think of one nice
gift you could offer her—something that might make
her feel welcome and safe and loved when she finally
shows up?
It can be as small a gesture as flossing your teeth (a
boring task I can never bring myself to execute unless
I begin by saying, “This one’s for you, future Liz!”), or as
big a gesture as quitting smoking or walking out of a
toxic relationship because you don’t want your future
self to suffer as much as your present self is.
If you can’t do a nice thing for you, could you possibly
do a nice thing for her? That mysterious and blameless
stranger will someday have to live in the world you’re
creating for her today. In other words, you’re the one
making the bed, but she’s the one who’ll be lying in it.
So be nice to her today. Be nice to her every day.
Remember: You are the best friend she has.