Now that I’m back to full energy and my regular “work,” I’m also falling back into old habits of getting to bed late.
It’s frustrating enough to make me want to pull my hair out!
Aarrghh…!
The struggle is real
Playing blog hooky
Today was a full immersion back into my workaday world. Meetings, emails, and lots and lots of details.
So, tonight I’m playing blog hooky and not writing much of anything.
What if?
I actually started crying when I first read this on Facebook. I immediately shared it on my feed but felt to say more about it here.
What first touched my heart was imagining how the world would be if all teachers had this understanding and routinely offered this kind of support to the children in their care.
But then I found myself thinking, what about our workplaces? What about our homes?
If your family is experiencing difficulties at home, I would like to provide additional support at work. I understand that you are not always able to share details and that’s okay. If your wife/husband/adult child is coming to work after a difficult night, morning or weekend, please text me “Handle with Care”. Nothing else will be said or asked. This will let me know that your wife/husband/adult child may need extra time, patience, or help during the day.
OR…
If my wife/husband/adult child is experiencing difficulties at work, I would like to provide additional support at home. I understand that you are not always able to share details and that’s okay. If my wife/husband/adult child is coming home after a difficult day, please text me “Handle with Care”. Nothing else will be said or asked. This will let me know that my wife/husband/adult child may need extra time, patience, or help during the night or over the weekend.
OR EVEN…what about ourselves?
If I am experiencing difficulties at work or at school or at home, I would like to provide myself additional support within. I understand that I may not always be able to deal with details and that’s okay. If I’m trying to cope after a difficult day, night, or weekend, please God, help me remember to “Handle with Care”. Nothing else need be said or asked. This will remind me that I may need extra time, patience, or help.
The ONE Thing
I was turned on to the book, “The ONE Thing,” by my friend and fellow music ministry team member, Jeannie.
The funny thing is that she thought I had originally told her about it! We still don’t know where she first heard about it, but I’m evidently supposed to pursue the lead.
Why do I say that? Well, because I actually started reading it yesterday and today, and so far I’m finding it powerful enough to be slightly depressing.
But then this appeared when I opened a new tab tonight:
At first I thought, “Nah…it’s probably not really related.” But then I saw this testimonial:
“….to work on just One Thing…”
So, okay — I’m listening! I’m going to keep reading and — as soon as possible — figure out what’s my ONE thing.
First time in a while…
…that I have nothing to say or report or observe.
It’s Friday, it’s raining, I’ve worked all afternoon, and I’m done. 😄
End of a crunch day
It feels like the first day in a while that I really got some good work done!
Unfortunately, there’s always more needing to be done than there are hours in the day.
So now I have to force myself to stop and go home before it gets too late.
The good, the bad, the neutral
It’s most definitely good news that I had hardly any reaction to my second shot of Darzalex (the new chemo medication I started last week).
There was a teeny bit of tightness in my chest and I felt rather low energy all evening, but that was nothing compared to a week ago!
The somewhat bad news is that I felt good enough to do a little bit of work — just for a few minutes, really! — and here I am, over an hour later and almost 11:30pm. Arrgghh!
Oh, well. I figure the one is cancelling the other and bringing me to neutral!
Good night, all!
Working vs singing
Today has mostly been about taking it easy (well, except for doing laundry!) and enjoying the feeling of being completely back to normal physically.
But it’s also been a day for inner work and deep insights from a wise friend.
The key phrases are nothing new; I’ve been trying to work on these things for years.
Peace and contentment. Being vs doing. Balance.
But now these concepts are moving from being given “lip service” to becoming absolutely essential in my life and causing me to take a hard look at my approach to my work.
What an interesting time.
Talent: blessing or curse?
My last couple of posts got me thinking more about the whole idea of being “talented” and what a mixed bag that can be!
Looking back I realize I had a certain amount of natural ability and facility with music. Things came pretty easily at the start. Of course, then I felt insecure because I didn’t have a clue what I was doing!
That’s the thing, isn’t it? When it all just comes to you naturally, a part of you worries that it could leave just as easily!
The fact is, although I had natural musicality and a beautiful tone, there were lots of other things that I wasn’t doing well at ALL (fixing all my “flute flaws” is where persistence and determination had to make an appearance).
Years later, when I had my own private flute studio, I saw how correcting all those errors in my playing made me a much better teacher. Pretty much anything a student was doing wrong, I had done as well and knew how to go about correcting it.
The only aspect of flute playing that I never felt confident teaching was vibrato. Why? Because when I was in high school the girl who played 1st flute in band did this “thing” with her tone that made her sound better than me. I wasn’t okay with that and determined if she could do it, I could do it. So I did, with absolutely no idea of how. 😄
I received a deeper understanding of all this thanks to a particular flute student. She was in high school, a beautiful and very talented girl who ended up being one of the greatest challenges of my teaching career.
There was simply no way to get her to work. She was quick and bright and had so much natural ability that she could reach a relatively high level with very little effort. So she considered herself an excellent flutist, entitled to praise and adulation, and disregarded most of what I was attempting to teach her.
Finally a light bulb went off for me and I saw how she was a perfect example of the “talented” trap. The truth is that none of us can take credit for any God-given talent that we’ve been blessed with. But what we can take credit for is the energy and effort, the persistence and determination, that we put out to develop our talent.
I’ve seen enough auditions won by seemingly “mediocre” musicians who just kept plugging away to know that if I had to choose, I’d choose persistence, determination, and discipline. Because…nothing is more common than unsuccessful [people] with talent.
On the other hand, when someone has talent and the willingness to work at it, amazing things are possible.
A working fast
For the past month I’ve been fasting once a week. It’s been a little challenging getting into a new regime, but it also feels good.
I usually take it pretty easy, but today — the last of this month’s weekly fast days — I ended up with a bunch of time sensitive projects that had to be addressed subito.
While it’s definitely true that the brain isn’t as sharp when operating without sustenance, I did what I had to do and got it done, regardless.
Now I’m ready to pack it in and (hopefully) go to bed at least a little bit early.