Done for the Week: "Not great, but not horrible."

Is it just me, or have we in the midwest experienced a couple of changes in season over the last week?

This has been such an odd winter that I've never really habituated to proper cold weather dress.  One day it's a jacket, no hat and no gloves.  The next, I'm digging in the closet for a warm scarf to wrap around my face, and clumping around in boots and mittens. 

Our recent snow fall, the day after a somewhat freakish warm spell, was welcome enough, especially to my four-year-old grandson and my lab/greyhound.  But the sub-zero windchill over the weekend, we could have done without.


Just when my personal foliage had started to bud, and my work to benefit from an infusion of life, it's back to the cave.  But we're holding our own in here, and getting stuff done anyway.

Done for the Week:  Feb. 6-Feb. 12, 2012

1. Biked twice
   
2. Played phone tag with orthopedist, unsuccessfully trying to obtain results from MRI of foot injury
3. Watched two basketball games with various family members
4. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Place of Hiding aloud with my husband
5. Read The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie; The Uncoupling, by Meg Wolitzer; A Pocket Full of Rye, by Agatha Christie
6. Began reading Proust's Remembrance of Things Past--my third attempt; made it to page 97, farthest yet
7. Continued to work my two part-time jobs, putting in extra hours
8. Continued participating in BlogHer's NaBloPoMo
9. Published 7 blog posts
10. Continued work on current clients' projects
11. Referred potential client to colleague 
12. Met with organization's fund-raising committee regarding ad book
13. Attended one yoga class
14. Did laundry 
15. Rescheduled college visit, previously cancelled by cold feet
16. Traveled to college visit with my son and husband
17. Went out to dinner with my husband 
18. Meditated 3 times
19. Cleaned wall-sized bathroom mirror
20. Straightened my work room
21. Spent 1/2 day with my grandson, shoveling snow, walking a dog, & playing trains
22. Planned birthday celebrationS for almost-twenty-one-year-old
23. Saw an old friend for coffee and catching up

My most important accomplishment last week was continuing to participate in BlogHer's NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), which required posting a blog entry each day.  What I hope to gain from this project is two things:  1) a reinvigoration of this blog, which has been languishing a bit from lack of attention; and 2) reconditioning of my writing "muscles."  After twelve days, I am beginning to see results on both fronts.  


Despite a long string of career makeovers, all I've ever really wanted to "be" was a writer.  And since, as last week's quote from George Eliot reminds us "It is never too late to be what you might have been," a writer is what I'm determined to be.  I claim the label only when I'm writing, or have recently written.  Walter Mosley, creator of the Easy Rawlins mystery series and author of This Year You Write Your Novel, says “If you want to be a writer, you have to write every day... You don't go to a well once but daily. You don't skip a child's breakfast or forget to wake up in the morning...”



So I'm using the NaBloPoMo challenge to train myself to write daily.


And discipline is a muscle necessary to this practice. 

Last week, I planned to focus on figuring out some kind of workable meditation schedule, and on meditating as many days as I could manage.  Also requiring/developing discipline.  So how did it go with this focus goal?  As Becker's least-favorite patient Mr. Ehrlich whines in the "Lucky Day" episode, "Well, you know.  Not good, but not bad.  Not great, but not horrible."  (And yes, I watch too many Becker reruns.)

Some months ago, I was relying on a routine practice of meditating immediately after lunch.  Apparently, that midday time is compatible with my biorhythms, or whatever, because it did work for me more days than not.  Unfortunately, my work schedule changed so that my morning's writing time is abbreviated, and lunch is on the run.  I have not been able to establish a different regular time that I stick with.  This week, I'll focus on trying to meditate most days first thing in the morning.  On those days that I have to be out of the house early, I will shorten the sitting. 

Namaste.