Friday again! Yesterday, great day in a bunch of ways. Loved spending the day at the Women's Club (my club!) in that venerable gorgeous building - ancestral really - one large room was set up with a dozen ancient sewing machines that have been lovingly maintained through the decades by previous Welfare Sewing members. These are the most basic of machines - just straight stitching, can't even reverse - the earliest electric models. And I don't think it's just romantic me who feels the presence of the women before who sat at these same machines and sewed for charity while chatting amiably about their lives. I love being part of that continuum - it's my turn now, and after I'm gone, the sewing will continue, maybe even on the same machines.
I dove right in and made prototypes for the breast forms - three different sizes. The organizer will take these samples to the American Cancer Society for their approval and, assuming they like them, we'll start mass producing them. When done with that, I sewed small "chemo pillows" which are given to people undergoing chemotherapy. Someone identified the need for little pillows to cushion the the chemo port from the shoulder seat belt - I guess the seat belt hits at just the wrong spot for most chemo patients, hence the need for the little pillows. I cranked out a few dozen of them.
Then dinner at friend Carol's house with her and her husband, George. We've both been busy and haven't had a good feet-up chat in way too long. And talk and talk and talk we did, inspired by each other's goings-on. Those of you who know her will, I'm sure, agree she is a treasure - a trove of information about wonderful topics from literature (she's working on her Master's in Literature) to science, to interpersonal skills, to the arts, and SOOO much more. Some people call her Carol the Connector. I call her my Concierge for Life. If you're at all like me, your inspiration can be fleeting without follow through. Not Carol. Even though it was late when I left, she hit her computer and sought out more information on the book Incognito, the Higgs Bosun discovery, Landmark Education - things we discussed over the course of the night. Not for her, fleeting interest! If something captures her imagination she takes it to the next step! And when she is excited about something, she networks the hell out of it, sharing it with everyone for whom she feels there will be interest and value, making connections all over the place. Don't spend time with Carol if you're not prepared to be challenged, have your world expanded, meet some new people, read articles and books she is sure to recommend, go to events all over the city. I value everything and everyone she sends my way.
Today I'm thinking hard about basics and that bug dance we all do when we deviate from basics. By the time we hit the mid point of our lives, we've accumulated a lot of data, a lot of practical wisdom. We have a darn good idea of what works and what doesn't. And what works is often pretty simple and straightforward and uncomplicated - not always easy to stay true to, but an elemental truth in our lives. "What's she talking about," you're asking by about now. I'm talking about stuff that's the basic care and maintenance of our lives: the way we eat, the way we move, the rhythm of our days, our relationships, our work. We know intuitively what we need to do, how we need to behave, what commitments we need to make to have those areas of our life function well - and yet...... it's tough, right? - to do the same things day in and day out, life in and life out - over and over and boring over again. Then along comes something new and exciting, a new way to lose weight, a device on the home shopping network that will trim inches while we sit and watch TV, some self-proclaimed pundit who tells us that our vices are now the new healthy, a book called The Four Hour Work Week.
This week, I found myself playing around with the idea of scrapping Weight Watchers - tried and true and eating-for-wellness Weight Watchers - in favor of something fast and easier. Maybe liquid protein, maybe the diet an acquaintance is on where I would drop 7 pounds a week, maybe gastric bypass (although I'm probably not heavy enough anymore to be a candidate - not sure). BUT DUMB IDEA! It's just me seeking a quick fix to a slow problem - impatient, frustrated, wanting something new, tricking myself into thinking there's an easier and better way when my deepest instincts tell me eating well is unglamorous, plodding, putting one foot in front of the other day after day - that healthy eating is about more than shedding pounds - it's medicine. Anyway, that's just one example of a fickle attention span.
Challenge today is thinking about this as it relates to yourself. Are you a stay-the-course kind of person or are you constantly ADD'ing between this and that in an effort to gain traction with a challenge? Reminds me of when I was a new mother. The newborn baby would cry for some inexplicable reason, inconsolable and I would try everything: over the shoulder bouncing, laying her across my lap and patting her back, pacing the floor, classical music, folk music, once I even put her in the bottom of a pillow case and swung her gently back and forth to emulate the womb. And the poor thing! I would try each of these things impatiently for a few minutes at a time, not waiting to see if it worked before I whipped her into the next position as I tried something else.
The blog today is about staying the course, even if it's a boring and unexciting one (if that course is your best path). There is so much information that bombards us, promising new and easier ways of being accomplished - it's all so seductive. Most of it is poppycock, but you already know that. And you already know there is absolutely no substitute for showing up every day, putting in the time, maintaining the focus even when your lenses are blurred and keeping your goals alive through hard work.
Peace,
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