My bulling days are behind me and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Time was when I could get up on a weekend morning, have a cup of coffee and spend 6-8 hours cutting wood, piling brush, moving rocks, or sifting dirt through a hand screen. Can't do it any more. The hardest part of such a change is the mental aspect. My mind still conceptualizes projects in much larger chunks than the body can handle. That is slowly changing, but isn't a particularly comfortable reality. Simply put: Mortality sucks sometimes.
My mother wrote a very lengthy (almost book-like) essay she called "Fourth Quarter Dividends." It was a compilation of her thoughts and experiences relating to her life between ages 60-80. Mom certainly packed some dandy stuff in those years. She got sober, wrote two books that were not only published, but were very well received, was given a Woman of the Year award in NYC by Self Magazine and had two really cool boyfriends. She also corresponded with a lot of interesting people and wrote the introduction to the reissue of Ben Ames Williams' classic Maine book "Come Spring." There were a number of other interesting experiences, layered between insights in that essay. Fortunately, I have a copy saved on my backup drive. I guess it's time to start re-reading it in meditative pieces.
Today is a perfect example of accepting my limitations. I was up until 1:30 am to write and post my monthly contribution on the Maine Crime Writers Blog. http://mainecrimewriters.com/ Last month, I wrote about the five young adult nominees for the Edgar Award and wanted to do the same for the five juvenile nominees this time around. There were too many things going on in late March and early April, so I found myself finishing the final book at 11:45 last night. Writing a brief description, plus my analysis and prediction of the winner took an hour, then there was time to proofread the finished product. Anyhow, I woke up at 8:45 this morning and after putting on the coffee, I caught up with entering Coke and Mountain Dew points in my accounts. Then a quick read of email before heading to the back 40. I've been working in one hour increments since then with 20 or so minute rest breaks. The remainder of the stuff cut while pruning my apple trees is raked up and put on the big pile to be burned in the garden. The lower third of the lawn is free of leaves and several fruit trees have been sprayed. Next up is raking the rest of the apple clippings on the other side of the garden and a first weeding around the rhubarb. By supper time, I will be stiff, a bit lame and on my way to endorphinland, but the day's accomplishments will be most satisfactory.
My mother wrote a very lengthy (almost book-like) essay she called "Fourth Quarter Dividends." It was a compilation of her thoughts and experiences relating to her life between ages 60-80. Mom certainly packed some dandy stuff in those years. She got sober, wrote two books that were not only published, but were very well received, was given a Woman of the Year award in NYC by Self Magazine and had two really cool boyfriends. She also corresponded with a lot of interesting people and wrote the introduction to the reissue of Ben Ames Williams' classic Maine book "Come Spring." There were a number of other interesting experiences, layered between insights in that essay. Fortunately, I have a copy saved on my backup drive. I guess it's time to start re-reading it in meditative pieces.
Today is a perfect example of accepting my limitations. I was up until 1:30 am to write and post my monthly contribution on the Maine Crime Writers Blog. http://mainecrimewriters.com/ Last month, I wrote about the five young adult nominees for the Edgar Award and wanted to do the same for the five juvenile nominees this time around. There were too many things going on in late March and early April, so I found myself finishing the final book at 11:45 last night. Writing a brief description, plus my analysis and prediction of the winner took an hour, then there was time to proofread the finished product. Anyhow, I woke up at 8:45 this morning and after putting on the coffee, I caught up with entering Coke and Mountain Dew points in my accounts. Then a quick read of email before heading to the back 40. I've been working in one hour increments since then with 20 or so minute rest breaks. The remainder of the stuff cut while pruning my apple trees is raked up and put on the big pile to be burned in the garden. The lower third of the lawn is free of leaves and several fruit trees have been sprayed. Next up is raking the rest of the apple clippings on the other side of the garden and a first weeding around the rhubarb. By supper time, I will be stiff, a bit lame and on my way to endorphinland, but the day's accomplishments will be most satisfactory.
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