This morning, I started the coffee, nuked the creamer, zipped out to do a few quick errands around the building, and when I returned, the house was filled with the sweet aroma of charred caramel macchiato. Oops—that’s what adding an extra zero to the timer will do for you. Absentmindedness has found a new home in my head. I trust that it is merely a temporary condition that will vacate when the corona virus does. Where has my mind gone?
Phone calls go unreturned for a day or so, unanswered emails clog up my inbox, daily walks are put off until the tomorrow that never seems to come, birthdays are acknowledged late or not at all–well, you get the idea. Maybe it’s just a matter of keeping my own company for too long, or a lack of outside mental stimulation. Whatever it is, it needs a bit of remediation.
What is wrong with this picture? Have I put the emPHAsis on the wrong syllable?
I know that I have committed myself to writing a daily blog for a reason. Why? Apparently, there are still things that I must learn, and this experience is a powerful teacher, a mirror reflection of my inner state of being. Can I keep up? Is there life outside of the classroom? Can I balance my studies with life, juggle responsibilities, and still get a little down time and enough sleep? Clearly, I’m a beginner in a graduate course.
It is safe to say that the care and feeding of my baby blog has become almost a full- time job. Like a child, it requires time, energy, sleepless nights, and a lot of nurturing. There are bloggers who have hundreds, or thousands of followers and I wonder how they manage when I struggle to look after my one small infant. Do they have any other life, these successful bloggers? They must have found the balance that I have lost.
Writing my early occasional blogs was like having a pet. Write it, walk away for a while, come back, feed it, give it a little attentionLif, and return at my leisure. A daily blog, on the other hand, is like having twins. The pressure is on, the days never end, and nothing much ever gets done. It’s like taking on a double major.
I wonder—when I learn whatever it is that I enrolled for, will I be allowed to downsize back to occasional? I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, maybe I’ll start thinking about why I enrolled in the first place and just get on with it.
Today, writing is the easy part. Next, I face an added challenge in the mix, Facebook and WordPress are both forcing me to learn anew thanks to technology changes. Really? Do I have to? Is this in the curriculum? No wonder my poor addled brain is tangling with forgetfulness and absentmindedness. Well, I guess that dealing with technology is a lot easier than having to write by candlelight with a quill pen like poor Jane Austin. All those revisions and rewrites? Heaven help her!
If this is the worst problem that I ever have to face, aren’t I beyond blessed? We all show up in our classroom with a personalized agenda. Our lessons come in a myriad of forms, with an equal plethora of forms available to help us. Some lessons seem a whole lot harder than others, but we never get more than we can handle. If we will just ask for it, recognize it when it shows up, and reach out a hand, we will be given all the help we need to move up to the next grade. The first step is to wake up and realize that we are all students enrolled in the same school, instructed by the same wise teacher who knows what is best for us—the soul. The greater the love and support that we give to one another along the way, the faster we will earn our masters degree. Godspeed to all.
Note: The photo above is courtesy of New Waves of Light, a website designed by anonymous individuals around the world who share the intention of bringing light and love to a world of darkness and chaos. (newwavesoflight.org or NWOL.us
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