Shhhh!

As part of my attempt (and I really should stop calling it that – I’m dooming it for failure) of crafting a well-lived day, every day, I am carving out time daily to read books and articles and things that don’t pertain to work.  Reading provides great mental clarity for me.  Normally, my brain buzzes around a mile a minute.  My thoughts begin to feel like bursting popcorn kernels hopping all over the place.  Consequently, my computer screen always has a million windows open.  I can't tell you how many times people have commented on this.  Yesterday, I read this New York Times article and found much of it so true. 

The best vacation I’ve had in while was to Kauai last year.  I stayed in a hotel that didn’t have internet and I vowed to only check my phone once a day.  I had a great time except for the giant Cane spider that tried to sleep with me.  YUCK.  Perhaps I should employ some of those unplugging strategies in daily life. 

Question:  Do you spend a lot of time plugged in?  How to you break away or do you?


(Please note: that lovely Cane spider picture is from the site Instant Hawaii.  I did not need a picture to remember that beast).

Life Changes

Every year I have a lofty list of things I am going to do or change THIS NEXT YEAR but then nothing happens.  I mean nothing.  I may last a day, but usually not even that.   Things have changed this year though, I quit a job I had a love-hate relationship with, I got sick, my family got sick, and I then I got angry.  Very angry, and then I saw this: 

This was my tipping point. 

Yum, dollar tacos and curly fries, you might say.  But to me this lot is where I’d thought long and hard about opening a community tutoring center in the low income community I teach in.  It hadn’t been a complete pipe dream.  I’d worked out preliminary plans but never did anything with them.  I was waiting, but for what exactly?  I don’t really know.   The Jack in the Box reminds me of inaction and wasted intentions.  Then I started to think about all the things I never seem to do:

·      I love to cook but only do so in spurts.

·      I like to get outside and find adventures but I always seem to be working.

·      I get spurts of craftiness but they pewter out.

·      I want to make a meaningful positive impact on my community; I want to help people.

·      I want to learn another language.

·      I want to enjoy everyday instead of looking forward to someday. 

Therefore, I’m not making resolutions; just like diets, I don’t think they work.  Instead, I’m looking for a life change.  Bold? Yes.  But, I don’t like regrets and if I don’t make a change, I feel I might have a lot of regrets down the road. I want my life to be mine, controlled by me, not by work or by money or by materialistic desires. 

Here goes…