Done for the Week: Leaps and Bounds, and a Bit of Limping

February was full of celebrations, this year even more than usual.  And as I am working with my physical therapist to repair my "gait mechanics," I am challenged as well to negotiate the choppy rhythms of my days with strength and grace.

March should present a more even surface.

In this last week of February, in between snowfalls and tantalizingly warm days, stress and happy moments, I managed to get the following done:

Done for the Week:  Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2012

1. Biked once; used elliptical trainer once; swam once with my workout partner
   
2. Continued physical therapy for foot injury
3. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Place of Hiding aloud with my husband
4. Read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender
5. Continued reading Proust's Remembrance of Things Past
6. Continued to work my two part-time jobs
7. Finished participating in BlogHer's NaBloPoMo for February
8. Published 5 Put it to Bed blog posts
9. Published 2 ReVersing Course posts
10. Invented NaJusWriMo, to keep myself motivated to write; and signed on for March
11. Began to participate more in the BlogHer community
12. Continued work on current clients' projects
13. Attended two yoga classes
14. Had dinner with friends; baked and brought a (not particularly sad) lemon cake
15. Did laundry 
16. Continued college conversations with youngest son
17. Meditated 6 times
18. Straightened my work room
19. Took my dog to the dog park
20. Made and communicated the decision to leave my current church, coincidentally on Leap Day
21. Celebrated our Leap Day anniversary with a small late-night Champagne party for two on the actual day
22. Made arrangements to explore joining new church
23. Attended new church with my husband and a friend
24. Saw Art Museum's Accidental Genius exhibit of self-taught artists with my husband
25. Celebrated our Leap Day anniversary two days late at the County Clare Inn
26. Watched an episode of Eureka with my son
27. Watched Devil in a Blue Dress with my husband

Successfully finishing the February challenge of BlogHer's NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), and establishing my own NaJusWriMo (National Just Write Month) in order to continue the writing momentum inspired by NaBloPoMo, constituted last week's most significant achievement.  I am looking forward to continuing to take my writing more seriously, and to making more regular time for it.  I am beginning to believe that writing constitutes, at this time in my life, the deep yes I wrote about searching for some weeks ago.

Last week's focus goal was "to strategize; to figure out how to apply what I know and am learning to the problem of wanting and needing to meditate, but not making time for it."   

For whatever reason, I ended up skipping past the strategy part, and going straight to the meditating.  However, some semi-conscious tactical work appears to have taken place.  The key elements of last week's almost daily meditating, after weeks of wishful thinking about meditating, appear to have been these:

1. I identified a time of day that had worked for me in the past, slotting in my practice as close as possible to that time.
2. I forced myself to meditate before lunch, which in turn preceded leaving for my afternoon job three days a week.  In this way, lunch served as a buffer that promoted the feeling of having enough time to meditate, and as a reward for having done so.
3. I lowered the bar in three ways, so that meditation didn't seem so daunting as it had become:  a.  I shortened the time from 20 minutes to 10;  b.  I relied on relaxation videos of nature scenes and sounds as a way of easing into a time of quiet; and c.  I skipped the cushion that had become a nemesis, and did my sitting on the couch in my workroom.  I view these measures as a form of training wheels to facilitate my return to this "bike" I had become so accustomed to before.  My intention is to continue using them until the habit is stronger, and then to remove them one at a time until I am once again sitting unsupported.

 I observe that I am feeling somewhat calmer--though perhaps only because I am not spending as much time flogging myself about not meditating? 

For the coming week, I am focusing on writing and meditating, continuing the approaches that have been working recently.   

What comes to mind is Michelangelo's purported description of how he created his sculpture of David:  "It's simple.  I begin with a piece of marble and remove everything that isn't David."  I feel like I am engaged in the attempt to unearth myself from all the busyness and clutter that keep me from being who I want to be.

BlahBlahWhatNow?

I have decided to create my own event, "borrowing" liberally from the now infamous NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) phenomenon, and the derivative project which goes by the equally inscrutable, and slightly salacious sounding name of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month).  

I recently participated in BlogHer's version of NaBloPoMo for the month of February.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I observed that some bloggers sign on for another month of NaBloPoMo at the conclusion of a month of blog posting.  I had been deliberating about whether or not I should do the same 

in order to "set" my new work energy and orientation, or . . . move to re-focusing these assets on other writing projects.

And then it came to me.  I could invent my own month of what procrastination experts term "pre-commitment."  Since blog posts are not all I want to write, and nor are novels (not even the one I am halfway through), I need a more expansive variant.  I'm calling it NaJusWriMo (National Just Write Month).  

Of course, it will need its own "badge," for those who want to commit online and display that pledge.   

Ta-da!

And, of course, some rules, which follow:

1.  Establish a list of what you yourself regard as "legitimate" writing products--i.e., output that makes you feel like a writer.  This is individual.  For some, it might be a letter to your mom, a grocery list, your memoirs.  For others, it could be a blog post, your very own War and Peace, a Pulitzer-worthy poem or play or piece of reporting.  Some of us might feel particularly writerly penning a song, an ad, a screenplay, a doctor's excuse--fictional or otherwise--or a piece for radio. 

You will know what will satisfy your writing urge when you see it.

2.  Specify criteria against which you can measure said output.  E.g., minutes/hours; pages; words; lines; posts; etc.

3.  Produce at least one writing product which meets whatever criterion you have determined each day.

4.  Keep a daily record of what you produce.

For myself, this blog post counts as today's writing.

Please feel free to sign on, if this sort of structure appeals to you.  And to let me know how it's going.  

Leaping to Conclusions

Every four years, my husband and I have an anniversary.  Whether we need it or not.

This is that year.  And this is that day.

We were married on the first (or fourth) anniversary of our first official date, which had been Leap Day, 1992.  So, ever so coincidentally, our 1996 wedding day was also Leap Day.

We eloped, because at least some of our children--his, mine, and ours, ranging in age from 19 to almost 3--would almost certainly have acted out seriously, negating the thrill of a day on which we had spent too much money, and in which we had invested too much emotion.

We kept the whole thing to ourselves for a month.   


In the sixteen years since, we've weathered more than our share of storms.  Our friendship is intact, the embers of our romance can still respond to some fanning, and in this beleaguered second marriage for both of us, neither of us has contemplated divorce.  


We deserve to celebrate.


If it weren't for my NaBloPoMo pledge, I'd take the day off blogging.  Instead, I'm concluding my February challenge, 29 days of posting, and four or sixteen years of marriage with a toast to my best love.

Happy Anniversary!

I'd do it all--well, most of it--over again.

Done for the Week: Still Climbing, Ala Winnie (Churchill, not Pooh)

The quote I put up for this week is from Winston Churchill, who said:

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

This, from a man who was famously hounded by "the black dog" of depression--which, in my book, lends some weight to this "sunny side" aphorism. 


Last week, as ever in the midst of my never-ending ascent, I was occupied with the following:

Done for the Week:  Feb. 20-Feb. 26, 2012

1. Biked once; swam once with my workout partner
   
2. Began physical therapy for foot injury
3. Got my husband to the gym with me
4. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Place of Hiding aloud with my husband
5. Read Willpower:  Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
6. Continued reading Proust's Remembrance of Things Past
7. Continued to work my two part-time jobs
8. Continued participating in BlogHer's NaBloPoMo
9. Published 7 blog posts
10. Continued work on current clients' projects
11. Met with communication team
12. Attended two yoga classes
13. Participated in phone call about my husband's retirement plans
14. Did laundry 
15. Babysat for my grandchildren, for their parents' first "night out" since new baby's arrival
16. Continued college conversations with youngest son
17. Meditated 2 times
18. Straightened my work room
19. Took my dog to the dog park
20. Gave my husband minor assistance with taxes
21. Scheduled my Leap Day anniversary celebration
22. Scheduled potluck with friends

Last week's most important accomplishment was successfully completing 26 days of BlogHer's February NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), which required posting a blog entry each day.  I am still relearning how much joy I glean from maintaining my blog.  And how much time I can make for writing when I make up my mind to do it.  

The week ahead will bring the end of this NaBloPoMo challenge.  I see from the BlogHer community that a lot of bloggers "re-up" at the conclusion of a NaBloPoMo month.  I am trying to decide whether to take on another month, in order to "set" my new work energy and orientation, or to move to re-focusing these assets on other writing projects.   I'll keep you "posted." [I know.  Groan.]

My focus goal for last week was intended to play to one of my strengths--reading.  I planned to finish reading Willpower:  Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Baumeister & Tierney.  This goal represented a kind of backing up with respect to my recently failed attempts to meet a focus goal of meditating regularly.  The idea was to retreat to an achievable rung on this apparently too challenging ladder, to experience meeting the goal.  I was anticipating some take-away from the book that would make it easier to re-establish and keep up with a meditation practice.

The good news is, I did read the book.  Though I didn't find it as "sinfully delicious" as its hype portended, and some of what the authors unveiled I had seen before, I did learn a thing or two.  I am still digesting what I read, and culling through the findings and suggestions.  I know I will write about at least one of the book's lessons in the near future.

As to meditation?  My baby-step focus goal for this week is to strategize; to figure out how to apply what I know and am learning to the problem of wanting and needing to meditate, but not making time for it.

Done for the Week: Taking the Energy Up a Notch

Maybe it's a perverse reaction to Punxsutawney Phil's prediction of six more weeks of bleakness.  Maybe it's because my countdown clock registers 10% of 2012 gone.  Or maybe the worm has turned.  (See Words@Random's exposition of this vermicultural phrase's "roots.")

For whatever reason, I have been a bit more focused and energetic this past week.  Here's hoping the worm in question remains in this position.  And here's the evidence of its workings.

Done for the Week:  Jan. 30-Feb. 5, 2012

1. Biked three times; swam once
   
2. Used my newly purchased heart rate monitor for the first time
3. Had oh-so-pleasant deafening MRI of foot injury; awaiting results from vacationing orthopedist 
4. Watched four basketball games with various family members
5. Continued reading Elizabeth George's A Place of Hiding aloud with my husband
6. Read Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith
7. Continued to work my two part-time jobs, putting in extra hours
8. Signed on for BlogHer's NaBloPoMo
9. Published 6 blog posts
10. Continued work on current clients' projects
11. Attended two yoga classes
12. Did laundry 
13. Continued supporting my son in his college application process 
14. Set up college visit, subsequently cancelled by cold feet
15. Supported my other son in beginning his new--and first-ever real--job 
16. Took son out to dinner to celebrate job
17. Had lunch and coffee dates with my husband
18. Went out to dinner with my husband 
19. Watched an episode of Eureka with my son
20. Meditated 3 times, once in an MRI machine
21. Finished re-hanging bathroom window shutters
22. Completed repair on remaining bedroom closet door 
23. Talked my credit union into one day's grace which allowed commingling of  two IRA accounts
24. Took my grandson swimming
25. Took my dog to the dog park twice, with one son and one husband
26. Completed meal planning for coming week
27. Did massive and expensive grocery shopping solo while men watched the Super Bowl
28. Babysat grandchildren for daughter's doctor's appointment

Last week's most important accomplishment was the re-energizing of this blog. A result of my new overall verve?  Or a contributor to that improvement?  Both, I think.

Personal fitness trainer Sharon Sorrels tells us, referring to the process of physical reconditioning, that  "you have to spend energy to get energy - especially when it feels like you have no energy." If I remember the basic rules of logic, from the bygone days in which I learned them, this does not mean that spending energy always enhances our store of vitality.  Using energy may be a "necessary but not sufficient" condition of acquiring more.



But it has been my experience that there are times (when the stars are properly aligned?  "when the moon is in the seventh house?"  when the gods are smiling?) when one good thing leads to another.  When the result of putting out energy cheers me, or the act of moving off the dime inspires hope and a sense of efficacy.  And this past week seems to have been one of those times.


At the best of such times, putting to bed one thing after another becomes a spiral of effort and accomplishment.  And in this case, I am energized by my blog's return from its recent period of semi-dormancy, to tackle other things.  And the addressing of those other things leads me back to the blog with renewed purpose.


I should also give credit to the decision to participate in BlogHer's NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) project for the month of February.  This represents the kind of "precommitment" that Piers Steel (author of The Procrastination Equation) advises as a useful crutch for procrastinators.  For me, the public nature of this precommitment adds the frisson of exposure that puts me over the top, making me that much more motivated to deliver.

My focus goal for last week was to meditate as many days as I could manage.  Apparently, I could only manage 3, but it's a start.  I remain challenged by a schedule that seems to change by the hour.  It might be a good idea to try pegging meditating to one or both of the two things I can count on happening every day--getting up, and going to bed.  For the coming week, I will focus on figuring that out, and on meditating as many days as I can manage.