You may laugh at me, but here’s a “true confession”: I had a light-bulb moment the other day, in which I realized that “Hey, I’m doing a lot, verging on too much.”
The various activities are ones I’m lucky — and happy — to have chosen, to have committed to, but the current slate is too much to maintain with the regularity I’d prefer — ideally daily (as I’m still managing with languages and fitness) or at least 3 or 4 times a week (was managing this with sketching or drawing or scribbling of some sort, but not so much lately) or even weekly (as of yesterday, I’ve missed that goal for blogging here, although I did manage a post over here).
Part of the problem is that I’ve added a few projects and challenges — and also that my daily rhythms are beginning to shift with the lengthening of the days.
I’ve got caught up with knitting these little animals, wanting to send one to each grandchild on birthdays this year.
I’ve added a daily 10,000-step challenge to my 3 weekly strength workouts . . . .
and last week, unusually, Paul and I got outside together to walk ’round a lake once, through a forest another morning, and, with snowshoes buckled, along some groomed snow trails on a mountain last Friday.
and I somehow added a weekly Conversation Class to my weekly Italiano Avanzato class . . . not only that, but I couldn’t resist joining the monthly Italian Book Club (fortunately, we don’t read a whole book each month, but rather — so far, at least — four or five short stories). Both weekly classes are finished at the end of March and the Book Club is only one Monday a month — but this week I have three evenings full, and it’s manageable-verging-on-too-much. . . especially since I’m also squeezing in my homework and my March challenge of 10,000 steps (6-8 kilometres!)
I’m not whining, nor am I humble-boasting. Rather, I am bemusedly — as in, Well, Duh! What Took you so long?! — taking stock and beginning to recalibrate. Recognizing my good fortune in being able to have these choices. Trying to figure ways I can manage to keep in play all these pursuits and activities that keep me happy, healthy, and engaged. . . And doing some of this work right here, in front of you, so that I can post today and we can keep chatting.
For tomorrow’s post — the one I began putting together today until I interrupted myself by “thinking out loud” — I take you on a walk with me to show you an iconic Vancouver sculpture in my neighbourhood. Hope you’ll join me.
Meanwhile, if you’re also trying to play Tetris with too many activities and too few dayplanner spaces — or if you’ve got the opposite problem or a related one. . . or if you want to talk language classes or snow-shoeing or knitting small animals. . . I’m always keen to hear your comments and watch conversations emerge.
xo,
f
That's what I'm telling you all the time…..
Brava!
Dottoressa
This made me smile, Frances. And then Dottoressa's comment. Like a sister would tell us when we're rushing around trying to do too much, no waffling, just straight up… "Just sit down for gawd's sake." Actually I tell my sister that and not the other way around. 🙂
I can't imagine how you squeeze it all in. I am a sloth compared to you. If we were comparing, which we're NOT. xox
P.S.Those tiny animals are such a labour of love. So sweet.
ohh, I love those little mice! Lucky kids to get such a special gift. I envy your mix of activities–I've been chained to tech stuff lately–just finished a new website design that was gruelling…..
The shot of Mt. Seymour brought back memories–I worked there as a snowshoe naturalist for 2 winters. It's nice to get inside the woods on snowshoes isn't it? More intimate than the wide clearings for downhill or even nordic….Vancouver is so extraordinary, to be able to just pop up into the mountains for a few hours! I can't wait until life gets back to "normal" –I miss the city. And you!
I have always marveled at how much you accomplish every single day.
My only contribution here other than applause is the reminder that accomplishment apparently generates dopamine, and I think my research is telling me that like any endocrine function, can be a double-edged sword.
So, as Sue said, better, just sit down xoxox
I had neighbor like you. Every morning she would ask what was on my agenda. At the end of the day she would check back to make sure I made good on my plans! I loved her but now that she’s moved I can relax! She was my role model but I always felt inadequate compared to her and all her talents and accomplishments.
slf
Those mice! Charm, character, composition. Really ma, they are tiny marvellous masterpieces.
As the say in New Orleans, Do Whatcha Wanna. Your body and how well you sleep will tell you a lot.
Dottoressa: You made me laugh out loud 😉 xo
Sue B: We do compare, though, at least so many of us do, and perhaps more women than men. . . I do my own math and come up knowing absolutely that I'm slothful, even when I know it can't be true. (You'd never believe how many hours I steal from housework though 😉
Unknown/Alison: I don't think I knew about your snowshoeing naturalist gig. And it's true — it's a more intimate experience, although those particular trails last Friday only had a small section that narrow. Most could also have accommodated skiers, I think. Your new website is looking great, but I know it's oodles of work. Megan's been putting one together "in her spare time" these last few weeks and I catch glimpses of what it takes.
Lisa: Yes! They're all activities I want to do, but somehow last week it struck me that to keep all of them in play at once (which isn't the only option, obviously), I will have to spread them out more sustainably. To leave more time each day to do what Sue said 😉 xoxoxo
slf: I suspect I'm not like your neighbour — only rarely do I make a list for the day and I aim at "good enough" for the housework. And much of my time is taken up in activities I really want to do — knitting takes time but isn't work; Italian is work but also entertaining; walking I enjoy once I'm out the door although the strength workouts do take some prodding. And I would almost always drop any of those to grab lunch or a glass of wine or a cup of tea with a friend. Sounds as if your neighbour had boundless energy — my problem is that my Want-to-do list generally exceeds my energy 😉
Duchesse: A mouse and her two ursine companions . . . I do like them, thank you. The designer (@fromcinthia on Instagram) deserves the real credit.
As for those folks for New Orleans . . . I do do what I wanna and my body and my sleep are telling me that I need to Wanna do less (I take it this is an easier observation for you wiser folk to arrive at than it is for me 😉
Hello Frances! My sister and I were just saying we need to make good use of our remaining shelter-in-place time! We are looking forward to being out and about and don't want undone projects holding us up! Is that being too optimistic? Ha!
Your grandchildren are blessed to have such a talented grandmother! Hope you are well!
Hello Frances; my first name's Frances too and we have a lot in common. I was newly retired when the pandemic hit, and since then have been trying to keep my brain and mind stimulated. I'm doing too much–too many zoom groups and reading groups, so much so that I can't keep up with the reading. I don't know how to stop tho, because unless I have a zoom group meeting, I've nothing to get up for in the morning. I'd be interested to hear your ideas on how to refine one's many interests into a manageable few. I like to think I'm Renaissance woman, but can't keep up the pace. How do I figure out what's really enjoyable/necessary?
-E.
At the moment I can only dream of a daily or weekly agenda. I have come to the absurd stage in the move when I greet increasing chaos because it indicates that the process of filling boxes and dismantling furniture is coming along fine. When I cannot sleep at night I sometimes wonder how the new place is going to affect my habits and schedules. In any case, there is a good chance I will get out more and get more exercise. (Longer way to the shops, more errands to be done by bike a small forest just round the corner…) As for Yoga, choir practice, and Italian classes things will more or less remain the same as long as everything is done by zoom. The real change is coming in autumn (or so I hope) when we may be moving back to "normal".
Charlene: Good thinking, but we will still be at least several weeks staying in our own immediate household bubble and I don't see us getting the vaccination before May, earliest. And personally, I've always got a few unfinished or ongoing projects so…. 😉
Elaine: I don't know whether it would be harder or easier to have been newly retired and then have the pandemic hit. but a big adjustment on top of a big adjustment either way. I think that big transitions — for me, at least — work better with some fallow time built in, but fallow time can make some of us feel disconnected, purposeless, irrelevant, and pandemic conditions only amplify these feelings. Sounds as if that activity has offered a structure that you needed but maybe now you could structure yourself a break — What you have to get up for in the morning might be a long or short walk, or half an hour free-writing in your journal, or browsing a library or bookstore's online offerings. I find I need to schedule that kind of free time occasionally — and sometimes a good long patch of it — just to get back to knowing what I really want to be and/or do. Does that make sense?
Eleonore: Oh yes! Even though it's five years now since I lived among all those boxes and tried to decide which furniture would come along and what to do with the rest. . . I remember that chaos vividly. Good that you're already looking ahead to the benefits and that you have some regular,sustainable activities for continuity. .. Good luck with it all (and I hope your health is holding)
Having just spent a day doing nothing, really, well, almost nothing. I didn't cook. I read a book, watched a movie, knit a bit, looked out the window lost in thought. I realized that I am perfectly good with that, and that these grand interruptions, these kind of pull inward days where I really don't want to get out of my pajamas or off the sofa, are my psyche's way of telling me I am doing too much. So what do I really want to do, and if I add something in, what has to go? I have to admit to myself that the bulk of my day needs to be time for solitude and creative expressions, just for my own sake, with no fear or thought to what anyone else expects. And everything else has to be dessert, not the main course. I think I used to do it the other way around, and that just doesn't work for me anymore. But how do I get there?