Done for the Past Two Weeks: Way Off My Beaten Path, for Once

A good chunk of the past couple of weeks was spent traveling, an accomplishment in itself, as you will see.  

While getting ready to leave, while away, and since returning, these things got done:

Done for the Past Two Weeks:  May 30 - June 12, 2011

1. Continued training for triathlon; biked 3 times, ran 4 times
2. Ran twice with my training partner 
   
3. Finished TheWorld According to Bertie, by Alexander McCall Smith; The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, by Alexander McCall Smith; People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks; Life After Loss:  Conquering Grief and Finding Hope, by Raymond Moody and Dianne Arcangel
4. Went to "Train Day" with my daughter and grandson
5. Attended 1 yoga class
6. Provided last-minute emergency assistance with major annual project
7. Survived eleventh-hour travel plans disaster
8. Succeeded in enjoying first real vacation ever with my husband of fifteen years
9. Met my cousin, her husband, and new in-law for brunch in Seattle
10. Walked and biked and ferried around Seattle with my husband
11. Mailed postcard to my mother
12. Continued to work my two part-time jobs 
13. Attended the Bead & Button Show with my sister
14. Took extra "trip recovery" day off blogging
    
15. Published 5 blog posts 
16. Wrote 2 gratitude journal entries
17. Got my husband to the gym with me once
    
18. Meditated 12 times
    
19. Oversaw completion of bathroom electrical work
20. Had lunch date with my husband
21. Completed website in time for client's book launch
22. Contracted with major new website client
23. Watched six playoff basketball games with my sons and husband
24. Went out driving with learning teenager several times 
25. Participated in driving my not-quite-licensed-to-drive son to his job
26. Began spending time on, and making progress with, yard recovery project
27. Spent lots of time outside in my swing, reading and relaxing

My focus goal for the past two weeks was to meditate and relax.    

During the years when I was overwhelmed with the challenges of raising a bright, sensitive, dyslexic child, a favorite resource was Rick Lavoie's video, How Difficult Can This Be? F.A.T. City--A Learning Disabilities Workshop.  The question posed in Lavoie's presentation, which called on teachers to apply compassionate understanding in working with "LD" kids, seems an apt one to put to myself, in this context.  How difficult can it be to consistently attend to my own need for peace of mind?  Not rocket science, surely.  But a struggle for me, nonetheless.  

On vacation, I managed to meditate every day, without benefit of routine.  And I squeezed in a fair amount of relaxation while gone, and since returning.  Then again, I was sheltered for much of this time from the gazillion demands that fill every non vacation day.  I think it best, however, to rest on what laurels I have at this juncture.  So I'm gonna say done, and done.

My most important accomplishment of the past two weeks, hands down, was having a wonderful time with my husband on the first real vacation we've taken, without kids, in fifteen years of marriage.  Turns out I retain my splinter abilities to travel, to explore new and even novel settings and experiences (somewhere short of bungee jumping, I admit), to spend extended periods of time solely in the company of (more or less) mature adults, and to connect romantically and intellectually with the man I married.  (Whew!)  And turns out my kids survived.  And that I didn't worry about them.  (Whew, again!)

For the coming week, my focus goal is to get organized for the summer.  Part of reentry from vacation was facing the realization that my everyday agenda is scattered, superfluous, and downright overwhelming.  I intend to look at all the things I have committed to do, and the things I want to do, and the things I have to do, and then to do some serious pruning.  I aspire to narrowing the gap between how I feel and live on vacation, and the rest of my life.  (Especially important given the dearth of vacations I have experienced in the course of my current family life, and the unlikelihood of that changing drastically in the near future!)  The level of dread and exhaustion that have been dogging me lately is motivating change, if nothing else.