Adventures on the Sidewalk

Friday, I dared to spare a few extra minutes.

So often in the course of a work day, I could walk where I need to go, but drive instead to "save time."

Today I walked to and from lunch at the Side Street Cafe. It's maybe nine blocks.

Here's a little of what I would have whizzed past if I'd ridden.



And the smell of a gardenia-laden bush.


Not to mention the honeysuckle. The city even provided regular reminders to leave the car behind and "waste" a little time on the sidewalk.


Getting outside and moving this little bit added a sense of variety and adventure to my work day.




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Do Something New -- Or Do an Old Thing Differently

I'd heard that the gallery light in the new N.C. Art Museum had a mysterious ethereal beauty.

Last night at dusk and in a thunderstorm, I made my first visit. (Characteristically, it was work that took me there: a gallery is going to be a setting for important stuff in my YA(young adult)-paranormal-romance-in-progress.)

I did find the ethereal light, the feeling that the classical sculptures had brought all of history with them.

And, my point, I was reminded of the refreshing value of regularly doing something new -- ideally every day.


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Bold in the Morning

Made a recent personal discovery: I have more courage in the morning. I don't mean the arduous moments of struggling to wake up, but instead after I get rolling. Then the world feels new, or newish, and I'm out in it.

Fatigue, on the other hand, does not make me bold. And that's probably just as well.

Have you observed any such patterns in yourself? This could be useful info for scheduling.

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A Writing Schedule

Oh, shucks. I thought I was about to shut down and go home for the day and then I realized: not yet.

Saturday at the workshop I taught, I asked participants to devise and make a commitment to a realistic "sustainable" schedule for doing their own writing.

At the same time, I silently made a new commitment to my own. I vowed I would do some work on my own writing (in addition to critiquing manuscripts, meeting with writer-clients) on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. At least.

Here it is Monday, at 6:31 and I haven't yet done it.

So...reckon I'll get to it now.

Care to make such a commitment yourself? Or report on how yours is working out?

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Wading Through Mud Today

I've noticed that there's a rhythm to my productivity and my get-up-and-go. Mud-wading periods are followed by flying-faster-than-light periods when most things are easy. The mud periods inevitably feel to me like a failure of nerve: as if timidity were slowing me down. This may not be true at all; it may be just a cycle, like waking and sleeping.

Today I was having my monthly cafeteria lunch with four mystic-philosophers I know (the group I refer to as Mystic Pizza). One of these wise individuals said that her theme for the year was Confronting the Resistance.

The idea of The Resistance comes from the excellentWar of Art book/CDs by Steven Pressfield. The Resistance is the great invisible force that can get between any of us and the good that we intend to do.

My friend's resolve/theme isn't to beat the Resistance every time. Instead it's to recognize when she's justifying not doing the right thing and instead make a conscious decision about which way to go.

For example, she finds herself saying: I'll go to the Y and work out after I finish this Sudoku. But she knows that what she needs is exercise and not more mental games. Her resolve is to simply acknowledge that exercise is the right decision and decide yes or no. I'll do the right thing and get moving. Or, I'm going to sit here and do this puzzle because I want to.

Her idea is to acknowledge when she's using gradual procrastinating rationalizations and instead admit that she's making a choice, on the probably correct theory that this awareness will lead to making good decisions more often.

I think she's on to a good plan. Maybe I should decide to wade through mud for the rest of the afternoon--doing easy things slowly. It would at least be better than brow-beating myself. (If I had a resolution for this New Year, it would be no berating myself.)

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"Soft Addictions"

I thought I'd recovered from last week's sudden end of the semester of teaching. But no.

Now I'm not sure if it's Duke withdrawal or caffeine (too much or too little.) In either case, my head, if not my spirits, is light.

I suspect caffeine. My wicked near-constant sweet iced tea habit.

Speaking of which-- I'm in the process of reading a book called The Soft Addiction Solution. Pardon the cliche, but it's an eye-opener. Not that I don't know about my harmless calming strategies: the nights with trashy magazines, the tea, the crossword puzzles even at red lights. What's new to me in this book is a way of reclaiming some of that time for conscious life, not through deprivation at all, but through a focus on something more inspiring.

Of course I ate chocolate cookies while I was reading about this. Nonetheless, I see a door opening before me in this book. I like the fact that it doesn't suggest giving anything up.