In [people who are] producers, loafing is productive; and no creator, of whatever magnitude, has ever been able to skip that stage, any more than a mother can skip gestation.
— Jacques Barzun*
* (I’m happy to report that loafing worked for Jacques as he was born in 1907 and still seems to be among the living. – PattiAnn)
A week ago I wrote about the 5 Signs That it’s Time to Take Time for You – largely because I am feeling in need of a break. So, what was the major event in my life last week? Adopting a kitten. To be honest, the two just don’t go together.
Although he’s a sweetie, he’s very demanding, and like all very young creatures, in need of attention – the attention he would have gotten from his mother, but which now falls to us to provide. Admittedly, this is a short-term requirement, but it feels like a lot more than it is because I already felt that I needed a break.
Mixed Blessings
Malibu (that’s the name that was picked by the neighborhood because he was found in the engine compartment of a Chevy Malibu) may be the classic definition of Continue reading » Gone Loafing
BTW – How was your day today?
Kick Up Your Heels and Celebrate
As I meandered through this week of annoyingly half-finished tasks, keenly concentrating on celebrating small wins, I stumbled upon a delightful and off-the-wall blog site run by Torley who tells us he’s “a happy human being.” About “micro-wins” he happily recommends:
Continue reading » Kick Up Your Heels and Celebrate: Wins, Contributions, Automagicals & Uncontrollables!
On Saturday, I saw a story in the Washington Post about a couple who met on eHarmony, dated and after a year, married last month. The groom is a paraplegic and my first thought was, “Wow, I could never do that.” My second thought was “but I SHOULD be open to it.”
This story had nothing to do with me and upon reflection it occurs to me that I could never do that now because my plate is overflowing with today’s challenges. Another one would feel like just a bit too much. But none of that precludes the fact that I went from an initial gut reaction to a judgment. I believe that for some of us, this is the core of our struggle with resiliency and it all starts with our judging ourselves.
Continue reading » You Deserve a Break Today
I was really pleased when Ellie used a picture of Eeyore on her post because I’ve always liked Eeyore. I guess that’s because he was soooo gray that he seemed funny to me. I never really thought of him as being depressed or depressing. He was so extreme that he was endearing, though I wouldn’t actually want to have to work or live with him.
Continue reading » Morphing Into Persistent Perseverance While Looking for Many Right Answers
I think many of us, especially me, live our lives acting as though Murphy’s Law and its corollaries predict our future:
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Everything takes longer than you think…
And that, I’m guessing, is what leads us to build “Worst Case Scenarios”. I myself think it’s a good thing to do. And so does Julie Norem, who gives a name to the process in her book, The Positive Power of Negative Thinking: Using Defensive Pessimism to Harness Anxiety and Perform at Your Peak
. She calls it “‘defensive pessimism’ … a process that allows anxious people to do good planning.”
Continue reading » Worst Case Planning Got You Down?
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