How to be while doing
My gardening to-do list is starting to grow again and I’m attempting to look at it with quiet enthusiasm and to pay attention to the pulse of trepidation that beats just one layer down. That thump, thump, thump is my Overload Radarâ„¢ (Angelina, this trademark’s for you…and you’re welcome to use it anytime you like) and it doesn’t take very much to set it off these days. I’ve come to understand that a wise and healthy woman keeps an eye on the Overload Radarâ„¢ and lets the to-do list languish when necessary. It isn’t going anywhere.
This weekend I intend* to do a thorough seed inventory so I can figure out what I need to buy. I’m thinking it’s mostly salad greens and some Roma beans. Thanks again everyone for your helpful comments about the beans. I have a package of Fava (Broad) beans from last year and will plant them early in the spot where I had the carrots last summer. It gets plenty of sun before the leaves are all on the trees, and the beans will give the soil a little nitrogen boost to make it ready for whatever I plant there late spring.
After seed inventory comes winter sowing. Hopefully I also manage to clean out my iPhoto, so I can photoblog the process. Right now I can’t even get my Christmas pictures uploaded, it’s that jammed up with images dating back to April 2007.
Meanwhile, it appears that Big Bad Bastard Bronchial Infection is tapping at my lungy doors again. I’m fighting, throwing everything in my arsenal at it, and so far (4 days in) it seems to be holding steady at a sinus nastiness and an upper respiratory coughing situation. Let’s not go full-blown this time, shall we? Everyone tells me that the preschool years are the worst on a mother’s immune system. I’ve had ten different women tell me that they spent an entire winter sick with one thing after another when their kids were in preschool. That right there just might be one of the best arguments I’ve heard for homeschooling.
One last bit…a request for some Bloggy Mojo in the direction of the young couple who looked at our house last weekend. They seemed very interested and mentioned looking to secure a bridge loan so they can buy our house at the same time they put theirs on the market. I feel the winds of change swirling. Thank you so much!
*I’m giving intention a try again, in an effort to reign in the chaos. I’m doing it at home and at work. At work it’s particularly beneficial. I set the intention of accomplishing my work without participating in the daily, minute-by-minute fire drill that goes on even though I had no idea of how to make that happen. After I made that choice, the answer presented itself: don’t deal with requests immediately. Pretty simple right? Well, not so easy to implement when everyone in the company expects that you’ll turn requests around same day, if not same hour. But unless the requester can show me a true need for instant results, I reply, “I’m adding it to my schedule now (which is just an ongoing list, but helps keep things almost clear) and can have that to you by _______.” Generally that’s two to three days out, sometimes a full week. I’ve only been doing this since the new year, and it’s reduced my physical and mental anxiety at work tenfold.
"In summer we live out of doors, and have only impulses and feelings, which are all for action, and must wait commonly for the stillness and longer nights of autumn and winter before any thought will subside; we are sensible that behind the rustling leaves, and the stacks of grain, and the bare clusters of the grape, there is the field of a wholly new life, which no man has lived; that even this earth was made for more mysterious and nobler inhabitants than men and women. In the hues of October sunsets, we see the portals to other mansions than those which we occupy."
~Henry David Thoreau
January 17th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Fantastic job doing the intention I’ll add it to my list thing. Good for you. And here’s some house-sellin’ vibes as well!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Love the new work mode. And love how it’s made your job easier. Hooray! I’m thinking
the house is sold!!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Darcy, I’m kind of blown away at how easy it was to just say “enough” and have things kind of fall into place. I really do think it had a LOT to do with critical mass and also with NOT beating myself up. That whole “be kind to yourself first” thing really does help.
thanks for the vibes!!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Cathy, you must know you’ve been v instrumental in my…uh…mental adjustments lately. Thank you SO much for your encouragement and support. I puffy heart you!
January 17th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Well, check one thing off your list early as those fava beans can be planted with peas and potatoes: around St. Patty’s day. I hear you on the constant UR infection thing: I go to a doctor who’s pretty much Dr. Tough-It-Out, which does fit well into my own approach to drugs, etc; he recommended I try the neti pot as all the other things had not been working (humidifiers, nasal moisture sprays, etc.) and he was right. Gross, but right. I so far have been healthy (knock wood) since I got it around Thanksgiving…and my almost-four-year-old has been quite germy the whole time. But good juju on the house!
January 17th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Good on you for setting reasonable limits on requests at work.
I am on vacation and hibernating, but am making lists too. Even started a few flats in the unheated greenhouse (elder and larkspur, thus far. echinacea next week.)
Dried whole plant on the violets, please. Thank you.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Oh, what a generous heart you have! Thank you for putting my book on your page: it’s only by such charitable nudges that ideas can ever get out into the wider world. I may be a tad biased, but I think that the Six Archetypes is an important concept. People read about them and say, “Of course. That’s right.” And then they go about changing their lives. Which is what they needed to do.
And thinking of change I’m so happy that you’re putting some limits on that work madness you’ve described. I’ve found your tactic works miraculously well, if only because it saves me from people rushing up at the last minute demanding things be done now. I’ve also invented my own variant, which is that I ask for things back from the askers. “Sure I can do this; now what I need from you first is to help me to de-louse my llama herd…..”
Higs and smooches, Allan
January 29th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Allan!!
I am so sorry I didn’t reply to this when you posted…I meant to.
I’m just about finished with the book I’m reading (My Life in France, by Julia Child) and then will dive into your book…
and where exactly do you hide that llama herd? Under the back deck?
; )
xo!