sparkling wine bottle and flute (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
I am breaking out the sparkly!
Comforts ~ Day 14 Or Moving Day
Sunday Morning (Photo credit: jspaw)
“Nothing is worth more than this day.” ~ Goethe
Go gently into this good Sunday. That is what I am going to try to do. It is early—4:21 a.m. and it is moving day. I am going to go gently into this day, knowing that it is going to be a long, busy, trying and emotional day. In a few hours we will be loading up the truck and finding our way back to my youngest son’s home away from home. His house is only two blocks from his college—so today these are the things I am grateful for:
1. Tyler is just a hop, skip and a jump from his front door to the college, which means he can get up a half hour before classes, get ready and get to school on time (unless of course he has to wash his hair).
2. He bought himself a new bike for $40 from a charity store—so not only did he help someone out with his purchase, if something happens to his bike then he is not out much. And it is a pretty darn good bike, though not shiny and new.
3. He will be fulfilling a challenge and reaching a goal. How can I complain about that?
Yes, I will miss him. But this is just one more journey of life. I do not always like the bumpy roads on our journey, but I respect the fact that they have to be traversed.
Comforts ~ Day 4 or Boy, Did You Come Through ~
Cheshire Cats! (Photo credit: pullip_junk)
Grateful? I am grinning like a Cheshire cat. My plea sent out to you mid-day Wednesday was met spectacularly. I asked you to help me reach my goal of 10,000 hits on this first anniversary of my blog and boy, did you come through.
The blog garnered 10,016 hits before the clock turned over to a new day! You went above and beyond, and I thank you for not letting my shameless begging go unheeded. Today was also my all-time high for the number of visits. So this post for Day 4 is going to be an easy one. I am thankful for:
1. Exceeding my goal of 10,000 hits and 300 followers on my first anniversary; but more than that I am grateful for the way you took up my challenge and made it happen. This blog would be nothing without its followers and I am fortunate to have the best in the kingdom.
2. The feeling that you were all pulling for me – that feeling is better than any statistic known to man or womankind.
3. And finally, I am grateful that I did not drink my last raspberry rum cooler on Monday night. I popped it (actually I unscrewed the lid) and drank to you for making this happen. Cheers!
And just in case you were wondering, Nike got no hits – so the success of this was dependent solely on you.
200 Words ~ Day 1
The last rays of sunlight on Mount Everest on May 5, 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My Goal:
Write 200 words a day for the month of July. (Not counting my weekly columns, which have to be at least 750 words to fill my space on page 5 of the paper it lives in).
Why?
Same reason people climb Mount Everest.
What is that?
Because it’s there.
Actually, Kathy Drue, from the blog: Lake Superior Spirit is attempting this, so I thought I would give it a try. I told her that it would be challenging to decide which babies to throw out with the bath water. (If you wonder what this baby thing is about—I learned from one of the members in my writers’ group, that “killing your babies” means that there are times when you have to edit out some of the best parts of your writing to achieve a goal: to make it more readable, the correct length, or not elaborate on something that does not need elaboration. That is my loose definition for a horrible term much befitting the process of editing).
I have been looking for a doable challenge for some time.
Think I have found it.
MAKE IT HAPPEN!
Cover via Amazon
In part, this explains how I turn out a weekly column–it is a simple process–I type “On the Homefront” (which coincidentally is the name of my newspaper column) at the top of the page and nine times out of ten it works–I am off and running the weekly race to fill the column set aside on page 5 of the newspaper for me. That tenth time, well–sometime I will write about it……
Whenever I write a column I always type in the title “On The Homefront” first. I don’t know exactly why, except that it seems to give me focus, so I can centre myself on the task at hand. I know that once I have committed to writing the column then that is what my agenda clears itself for. I wonder if this would work with the rest of my life. I have a book that is titled, “Write It Down, Make It Happen”, (which I cannot find right now—must have lent it out) that prescribes this simple theory: if you write something down, you have in essence written it down in your psyche, and therefore you will (almost unwittingly) work towards that goal.
I know this works on a certain level, after all, when I write down the title of this column, then I usually make it happen. But having a deadline also works—specifically for a world-class procrastinator like me. I have reached a certain comfort level with my procrastination—having studied it ad nauseam I realize that I suffer from “perfection syndrome”, or “if I don’t understand it, how can I do it.” (Okay, I just hit something on my keyboard and now I am composing in italics—I don’t know why and I cannot seem to get rid of it—pardon me for a few moments while I work on this.)
Okay, the italics went away. Now back to my “perfection syndrome”—it is annoying, and I am trying to cure myself of the malady, which you think would be easy since there are so many facets of my life where imperfection is a fact. I generally get over perfection syndrome when faced with a deadline that will not be moved, or when I realize there are just some things in which I will never reach perfection. But the goal of perfection is kind of what you make it. Defined as excellence, it is a good thing; defined as flawlessness, it is not.
When Gretchen Rubin embarked on her “happiness project”, she soon realized that her critics were being a bit mean and miserable when they called her book, “The Happiness Project” the result of a newly popular genre called “stunt journalism”. I don’t think Gretchen’s main goal was perfection in trying to find the elements of happiness, but she was looking for a form of “excellence”. She felt she was wasting her life and she wanted to do something about it. Her stunt was to go about her goal over a period of twelve months. Each month had several goals. Apparently this plays into the definition of “stunt journalism” which is defined as “doing something for a year” (and then writing about it.)
I am all for stunt journalism or anything that gives inspiration some get up and go. Inspiration is great, but it needs motivation. Gretchen stretched her project out over a year to give it a chance, and she broke it down thus: January-boost energy by going to sleep earlier and exercising better. This was also her toss, restore, and organize month. In February she wanted to quit nagging and give proofs of love (àpropos to the month of love). In March her overall goal was to “aim higher” and enjoy “now” (à la Eckhart Tolle).
In April, she decided to “lighten up” so she began to sing in the morning. May was her “play” month, where she resolved to find more fun, take time to be silly, and “go off the path” and be more adventurous. She made time for her friends in June and “bought her happiness” in July by indulging in a modest splurge. She got ethereal in August by “contemplating the heavens”. No one can say the girl did not set some pretty lofty goals.
Her September goal was to write a novel and she did. Not an edited, ready to publish novel, but a novel nevertheless. October was her “pay attention” month, where she meditated and “stimulated her mind in new ways”. She did this by leaving post-it notes around her home. In her bathroom she posted this note: “Tender and light-hearted.” Ten months into the project and her husband, who needed a sense of humour to get through his wife’s “happiness project”, crossed off the words “tender and light-hearted”, and changed them to “light and flaky.”
Her goal in November was quite poetic: “keep a contented heart”. She did this by focusing on her attitude to “cultivate a light-hearted loving, and kind spirit.” Month twelve, December, was boot camp, where she tried to practice all her resolutions, all the time. She had created a Resolution Chart and she wanted all gold stars for that month. (We are all kids at heart).
Her stunt was to get happier. She wrote it down and made it happen. Good stunt.
