respecting
I think I'm going to start measuring design projects in pounds gained.
I may have made a boat load of cash this month but every penny brought along a friend named ExtraCell that has wound up camped and partying on my backside.
This happens. Because of this problem of Tunnel Vision. I get consumed in a project and forget little things. Like moving. Or that vegetables are good for me. And sometimes at hour 9 of a 13 hour day the only thing that makes it tolerable is wine. And at hour 10. 11. 12. And chocolate.
You'd never know, when I'm in the throes of Busy, that I live a pretty balanced life when things are less consuming.
Awhile back I decided that it wasn't really What I Do that I want to define my life, it's How I Live my days. And while the definition of that is always shifting, my list of important things to include in every day right now is:
Beauty (which can be as simple as living in a clean home, or taking a photo, or listening to a piece of music that is More Than)
Organization (washing the dishes, doing the laundry, having a To Do list that I actually use)
Conversation (a real one, with someone, not just the morning coffee-exchange or a work conference call ... you'd be surprised, living and working alone, how often a day goes by without an actual real chat about real things)
Exercise (and walking to the grocery store or to get coffee Does Not count)
Solitude (which doesn't mean even more being alone. It means Being Alone with focus, consciousness, intentionality, purpose. Writing, walking, praying, meditating, reading ... something that is simultaneously Big and Small)
This last month, I forgot everything on that list. The list did not exist. If the list entered my mind I ran away from it like it was a burning thing. It was so very not helpful in the Tunnel.
Which is of course ass-backward Wrong. It would have been the Most Helpful thing to have along in the tunnel.
So yeah, I'm being challenged to find balance in the Busy too. As long as I'm running my own business I realize that things will often be Feast or Famine. It's the nature of it all. But there's no good reason why I need to be sitting at a banquet table in the center lane, in the dark, with cars whooshing by. It should never stop life.
To honor values and priorities - always - outside the ever-arcing pendulum of work. That's Balance. When you live alone it's insidiously easy to give in to the swinging and just let it happen. There is no one tugging on your apron strings or coming in at the end of the workday with their own agenda that you need to stop and respect.
Except there should be. The respect I mean. So you learn to let Beauty or Organization or Conversation, Exercise, Solitude walk on over, take the mouse from your hand and force you to stop.
Or damn if the party on your backside won't just get noisier and more rambunctious. Or you enter enough Tunnels in a row that you start to lose the Important Things.
-----
Love the white walls, bookshelves, amber lamp and random graffiti on an interior wall!
-----
Must return to the work. But first, I will blast a little of MJ's The Way You Make Me Feel and bust a Rest In Peace dance around the apartment. Well, a My-Back-Is-Still-Broken kind of dance, but I'll give 'er the old college try.
Peace all. T.
I may have made a boat load of cash this month but every penny brought along a friend named ExtraCell that has wound up camped and partying on my backside.
This happens. Because of this problem of Tunnel Vision. I get consumed in a project and forget little things. Like moving. Or that vegetables are good for me. And sometimes at hour 9 of a 13 hour day the only thing that makes it tolerable is wine. And at hour 10. 11. 12. And chocolate.
You'd never know, when I'm in the throes of Busy, that I live a pretty balanced life when things are less consuming.
Awhile back I decided that it wasn't really What I Do that I want to define my life, it's How I Live my days. And while the definition of that is always shifting, my list of important things to include in every day right now is:
Beauty (which can be as simple as living in a clean home, or taking a photo, or listening to a piece of music that is More Than)
Organization (washing the dishes, doing the laundry, having a To Do list that I actually use)
Conversation (a real one, with someone, not just the morning coffee-exchange or a work conference call ... you'd be surprised, living and working alone, how often a day goes by without an actual real chat about real things)
Exercise (and walking to the grocery store or to get coffee Does Not count)
Solitude (which doesn't mean even more being alone. It means Being Alone with focus, consciousness, intentionality, purpose. Writing, walking, praying, meditating, reading ... something that is simultaneously Big and Small)
This last month, I forgot everything on that list. The list did not exist. If the list entered my mind I ran away from it like it was a burning thing. It was so very not helpful in the Tunnel.
Which is of course ass-backward Wrong. It would have been the Most Helpful thing to have along in the tunnel.
So yeah, I'm being challenged to find balance in the Busy too. As long as I'm running my own business I realize that things will often be Feast or Famine. It's the nature of it all. But there's no good reason why I need to be sitting at a banquet table in the center lane, in the dark, with cars whooshing by. It should never stop life.
To honor values and priorities - always - outside the ever-arcing pendulum of work. That's Balance. When you live alone it's insidiously easy to give in to the swinging and just let it happen. There is no one tugging on your apron strings or coming in at the end of the workday with their own agenda that you need to stop and respect.
Except there should be. The respect I mean. So you learn to let Beauty or Organization or Conversation, Exercise, Solitude walk on over, take the mouse from your hand and force you to stop.
Or damn if the party on your backside won't just get noisier and more rambunctious. Or you enter enough Tunnels in a row that you start to lose the Important Things.
-----
Love the white walls, bookshelves, amber lamp and random graffiti on an interior wall!
-----
Must return to the work. But first, I will blast a little of MJ's The Way You Make Me Feel and bust a Rest In Peace dance around the apartment. Well, a My-Back-Is-Still-Broken kind of dance, but I'll give 'er the old college try.
Peace all. T.
posted by traceyj at 9:23 AM
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