Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers, why not gather your own bouquet?
~ unknown
For the first time in almost a week, I went for a walk with my puppies this morning. I had a chance to work at the elementary school, but I turned it down, and I've only felt the slightest twinge of guilt about it.
The problem with juggling mutliple part-time jobs is never having any paid time off. Ergo, you feel guilty for taking a day off.
But I needed a day to breathe. To stop and consider and catch-up and regroup and indulge and tackle big chunks of projects. I needed a day at home, after days away, and days ahead already spoken for.
I discovered that flowers are blossoming everywhere, like it's a second spring. Purple and yellow explode along the roadside and spread into the woods. I think this happens every autumn, but for some reason it always catches me by surprise – but such a wondrous surprise! They kept my camera busy.
Belle and Max were overjoyed that I was walking with them. What a great way to start the day, having someone be overjoyed to spend time with you.
Then, for the first time in weeks – maybe months – I played my drums after our walk. I vowed again, as usual, to play a little bit every day from now on.
But even as I said it, I knew it was an empty vow. When you're trying to work as much as possible to help pay bills, plus trying to get a business started and write a book and take care of your family and every weekend you're not working there is something exciting going on out of town like high school reunions… well, playing the drums gets pushed way down on the list. But it was still fun today.
Next, I ran on the treadmill. As with the morning walks, it had been almost a week since I'd worked out, so I went easy on myself. I ran three miles, but let myself jog at a slower pace.
(It's funny. Lately I've dreaded my workouts, chafing at the time it takes, thinking of a million other things I need to do instead, like a kid making excuses to get out of doing her homework. But this morning, after not being able to work out for so long, I savored the opportunity. Weird, huh?)
I spent the afternoon focused on my budding photography business, specifically, working toward a website. I purchased the domain and tomorrow, budget drained, I'm going to teach myself CSS and whatever else I need to know to build and design it.
A lot of work, perhaps, but I'm just adding flowers to my bouquet. They come in all different shapes and sizes and colors.
I hope you continue to add to yours.
P.S. Thanks to everyone who nagged me to send those photos to Marilyn. I'm happy to report I did it! And if you're interested, I posted the photos on "For Marilyn, at long last" on my photography blog.
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