Early snows leave me plastered to a window,
Oohing and aahing as each flake falls...
And watching the gentile dance
As time slows down
And they glide gently earthward,
To lie together.....and melt.
pel*I*Can Dream
Pelicans...beautiful, awkward, strong, vulnerable...
Within everyone is a dream...
I can dream...
I hope you enjoy!
Within everyone is a dream...
I can dream...
I hope you enjoy!
Monday, November 26, 2012
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Putting What’s Important, First
On the first
of the month I woke up very early, excited to get started writing, which I
did. During that time, I detailed my
writing goals for this month. The next
30 days would provide me the opportunity to commit to something that both calms
me and energizes me. It would be my “window
in” to actually being, or at least thinking of myself as being a writer.
And then,
something happened….life. And while the
energy of that first morning’s writing experience kept me excited (from time to
time) throughout the day, I entered into a bit of a zombie work zone. With a pre-planned day in mind, one email
that indicated I had a window of less than 8 hours to complete two extensive
reports put me into hyper-drive and threw most other plans out the window. And so, I had to prepare my mind for the
numbing task before me. I was able to complete
both reports by the time the systems were locked at the end of the day, but the
price I paid was a few bites of lunch eaten quickly at my desk, one abandoned
meeting, very stiff shoulders and neck, and feeling far less enthusiastic about
sitting down and writing some more, because I wanted to, because it was what I
wanted to do it. And well, besides that,
I didn’t have the time.
Left the
office, fought the traffic home. Years
ago I swore that I wanted to live within 10 minutes of work. I have yet to be able to make that transition
for myself, even though I hope firm to the belief that it would add
tremendously to my quality of life. So
50 minutes later, I arrive home to find I’ve been saved from making dinner
because my children don’t happen to be hungry at the time. Well, at least I got a few minutes
there!
What do I do
with my new found time? Breathe, relax,
bathroom, walk the dogs, check the mail…that was quick, now I have to go
again. Take my daughter to cheering,
well actually, she drove. So I can relax
as I ride along in the passenger seat, ever vigilant to make sure that she is
paying attention to all of the complexities of driving etiquette and road
rules. May be not all that
relaxing. After dropping her off, I go
in search of the apparently elusive single-subject, college ruled, spiral. Two drugstores, who both think these items
are gold and have given them a price point of $5, and a dollar store that does
not believe in college ruled notebooks, later I finally find what I’m looking
for. Oh good! Just in time to pick her up.
Back home…it’s
make her sponge-bob macaroni while she showers and then we sit down to fast
forward through the previous night’s 2 hour episode of “X-factor” at lightning
speed. This seems to be an urgent thing
because she does not “like watching the show alone” and she hasn’t been able to
go into Instagram because she follows many of the contestants and doesn’t want
to find out the results before watching the show. 11:30, I finally crawl into bed, but even
though I’m exhausted, I find the desire, time, and energy to write. …but I don’t post.
That is a
long chronicle of day 1…and then day 2 arrives.
Nope, I didn’t wake up early.
Work has its own set of meetings and tasks. Once again, lunch at my desk and various
to-do’s…get home about 7 after picking up something for dinner that was fast,
but at least healthy. Eat, once again sit
by my daughter’s side and watch TV, every time that I move from my place on the
couch I get the evil eye and I’m grilled with, “Where are you going now?” So I find myself having to announce every
time that I have to go to the bathroom.
Or just saying that I am so that I can move from that spot.
And so I
woke up this morning before my alarm would have gone off had I set it. What?
It’s Saturday, I could or should be sleeping, so instead I lay in bed,
pretending to relax and thinking about all I have to do and all that I want to
do. I have (yet more) reports that are
still waiting to be done. I have to go
to the office for some presentations (yes, on Saturday). I have to find the needle in the haystack and
search my storage unit for my older daughter’s diploma(s). I’ll be happy to find one. I mean, when items were boxed, we didn’t
exactly index each item that was put inside.
Every time I’ve moved, I keep thinking that maybe I should, but that’s
probably a story for another time. Which
brings me to this post.
In all of
the things that consume my day, I often find that I leave out the things that I
want to do that are important to me. The
things that may, or may not, change my life.
But regardless of how earth shaking they may be, given how my writing
makes me feel, it should be at the top of my list…and not at the bottom, or not
on my list at all. So if I learn nothing
else this month, I hope it’s to make the time to put what’s important first, or
at least make sure it has a place.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Facing a Challenge - Setting Goals
I can't wait to get started! Hooray! Oh my God, what did I commit myself to? November will be a writing month!!
November. 50,000 words. Digital Writing Month. Academic Writing Month. 50,000 words. I actually did the math. 50,000 written words means that I have to write 1,666.67 words each day. OK, 1667. Wait! Don't I already do that? Don't I already write more than that many words in the emails and other documents that I write for work? Don't I clearly write more than that many? I started to panic as I began reading the posts on Twitter, those who are overwhelmed by the challenge. Well, this is the start of my journey.
Excitedly, I awoke this morning at 4 a.m. Don't know why my body chose to wake up at that awful hour, for no apparent or good reason, but I did wake up and I had writing on my mind. So, after 40 minutes of reading email and twitter and thinking about writing, I actually decided to write. Thankfully for anyone who reads this, I didn't write my ramblings here. But I decided to write my goals for the month. And here is what I discovered.
In writing my goals, I started writing them as, "I want to..." After rereading two goals, I decided that "I want to..." was too weak of a start. It's like dreaming to leave your house while never getting out of bed. Like a friend of mine says, "Ya just can't get there, from here." So, I changed the start of my goals from "I want to..." to "I'm going to..." I felt better about this because it implied action rather than just desire. But, when I got to my personal goals, I felt weak about the "I'm going to..." beginning because while it implies action, it doesn't actually require or direct it. Hmm, may be all of those life coaches are right when they direct you to write your goals like you are already doing them or achieving them? May be that's why they make the big money? So, now I need to go back to my goals, revisit and rewrite them. I want to do this anyway because I want to make them portable. Rather than words on a document on my computer, I want them to be my map that I carry around with me. I can pull it up and review it so that I know that I'm heading in the right direction; so I can refer to it when I feel like I'm getting lost.
Between my writing document that I started and this post, I've already written over 1,900 words. That exceeds my daily goal, and it was extremely easy to reach. See! I was right. No reason to panic, this will be easy. But I have a feeling that if I stick with this, I will accomplish some (wonderful) unintended consequences along the way. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
November. 50,000 words. Digital Writing Month. Academic Writing Month. 50,000 words. I actually did the math. 50,000 written words means that I have to write 1,666.67 words each day. OK, 1667. Wait! Don't I already do that? Don't I already write more than that many words in the emails and other documents that I write for work? Don't I clearly write more than that many? I started to panic as I began reading the posts on Twitter, those who are overwhelmed by the challenge. Well, this is the start of my journey.
Excitedly, I awoke this morning at 4 a.m. Don't know why my body chose to wake up at that awful hour, for no apparent or good reason, but I did wake up and I had writing on my mind. So, after 40 minutes of reading email and twitter and thinking about writing, I actually decided to write. Thankfully for anyone who reads this, I didn't write my ramblings here. But I decided to write my goals for the month. And here is what I discovered.
In writing my goals, I started writing them as, "I want to..." After rereading two goals, I decided that "I want to..." was too weak of a start. It's like dreaming to leave your house while never getting out of bed. Like a friend of mine says, "Ya just can't get there, from here." So, I changed the start of my goals from "I want to..." to "I'm going to..." I felt better about this because it implied action rather than just desire. But, when I got to my personal goals, I felt weak about the "I'm going to..." beginning because while it implies action, it doesn't actually require or direct it. Hmm, may be all of those life coaches are right when they direct you to write your goals like you are already doing them or achieving them? May be that's why they make the big money? So, now I need to go back to my goals, revisit and rewrite them. I want to do this anyway because I want to make them portable. Rather than words on a document on my computer, I want them to be my map that I carry around with me. I can pull it up and review it so that I know that I'm heading in the right direction; so I can refer to it when I feel like I'm getting lost.
Between my writing document that I started and this post, I've already written over 1,900 words. That exceeds my daily goal, and it was extremely easy to reach. See! I was right. No reason to panic, this will be easy. But I have a feeling that if I stick with this, I will accomplish some (wonderful) unintended consequences along the way. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Where do you go
to take off your shoes
wiggle your toes
put your feet up
and your hands behind your head?
When you are there
do you breathe slowly
laugh deeply
smile broadly
and open your mind?
Why do you chase
the clutter
the clouds
the confusion
Instead of welcoming
Anticipation
Surprises
Excitement?
How can you find
that place inside yourself
that frees your imagination
opens your possibilities
and lets your mind kick its shoes off?
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