Navigating the Depths

There is a depth to life that runs like a current while we swim thro' waving communities and forests with the tiniest of minnows 

or the grace of dolphins 

as we dive deep, 

skim the surface or 

wade into the waves 

wind currents wrap around mountains and dive deep into valleys while we fly through the skies

like the tiniest hummingbird or as grand as an eagle

wings spanning the depths of moments, space and time

navigating through cloudy and clear skies, forests and grasslands

feeling hope, seeing beauty and singing our songs.

“I go to seek the Great Perhaps.”

~  François Rabelais

Details! Schmietails!

This short story was inspired by my blog post from yesterday about paying attention to details. Although self care was specified in that piece, today's morning musing was an attempt at unravelling the many, many details spilling around us. Bills in the mail, memos at work, and those previously mentioned mundane tasks in our homes, not to mention extra curricular schedules and spontaneity. The great depth of it all almost overwhelmed me. Cora, in the following story stepped up and saved my sanity. Enjoy!

Details! Schmietails!

“Details! Schmietails! Do you not see how much is piled on my desk. Practically falling on the floor. And then there’s all my emails. And look at the clock. It’s almost quitting time. I’ll never get it all done. And you want me to pay attention to details differently than I already am?!”

Cora, her naturally curly blonde hair was wound more tightly than usual. Telephones had been ringing all day. The fax machine seemed particularly loud while it hummed and spat out more paper work for her to do. Harried people, with nothing better to do than complain, had been coming and going wanting her to fix their problems. As though it was her fault and not now but right now. Here was her boss, standing ramrod straight with his little clipboard, his tie just so and a knife edge pleat to his pants, telling her about time management and how she could be doing things better and faster. She took a deep breath and pushed back her chair, almost knocking Mr. Detail in the knees. Standing up to her full 4’9”, hands on her hips and her back ramrod straight she looked him square in the buttons on his shirt.

“Just a minute” Cora paused, turned and reached for the foot stool under her desk. She placed it in front of her boss, stood up on it and returned to her position. Now she could look him squarely in the eye. Cora continued in a voice just on this side the calm and controlled manner she presented.

“Mr. Derringer, you’re a good man. An intelligent man. If you look at the clock, you’ll see that the office will be closed in one hour. That’s five o’clock. If you look at my desk, you’ll see that I have more than one hours work. Now, I appreciate your information however it is eating into the time I have managed to carve out to clear at least some of it up. I will be completing what I am able to reasonably do before five. I know how you hate to pay overtime, so all the rest will be stacked in order so that I can get it all completed tomorrow. I do hope there is more staff here tomorrow to answer….the……phones. Telephones do not care about time management. Thank you for listening to me. Please take your clipboard and return to your office.”

With that Cora stepped down off of her stool, put it away under her desk, sat down in her chair and returned to work. Mr. Derringer just stood still his mouth open as though he were about to speak.

“And close your mouth before you go.”

Cora smiled as she heard her boss step away from her desk, his footsteps retreating quietly to his office. Her tap-tapping on her key board and ruffling of invoices, bills, and correspondence covered his tracks. All the details in the world would not make her work faster. But she would leave on time so she could get to her son’s basketball game by six p.m. Supper would be ready for her when she arrived home, a lovely stew bubbling in the crock pot. Cora settled in to finish her work day.

“The details of life have a tendency to interfere with the actual living of life.”

~ Richard Diaz

Embracing the Mundane

The last lines of my post yesterday were ‘there are so many other things that filled the in-between moments tossed away as mundane. ……even I feel the urge to say that I haven’t done enough or been busy enough.’ I’ve carried those thoughts with me this morning. Any morning, whether an outside work day or at home, is filled with those apparently mundane things. Things such as getting out of bed in the morning, brushing our teeth, general grooming for what the day has to bring. I know that many jump out of bed, throw their clothes on and rush out the door, grabbing a coffee on their way to work. Alternatively, it may be a dedicated and delightful pyjama day that does not require an acceptable visage for the world, with coffee at home. Regardless, all of these so called mundane things are really self care. Self care is something seldom on any schedule unless it is an appointment for a manicure or doctor’s appointment. Finding the meaning, the depth to the so-called mundane reminds me that without these activities, we would be a pretty messy society.

I attended a Naval Boot Camp many years ago for a friend who was graduating. The speaker, possibly a Four Star Admiral, gave the keynote address. His speech was the required length and I have forgotten the majority of it. He talked about one issue of daily importance to me: attention to detail. In the context of Naval Education, he was referring to a group knowledge of what these young men and young women would need in crisis situations. Trust in my own self care is paramount. This self care is not just so others can trust in my abilities, but so that I can trust my abilities to ride safely through each day. Because of the chronicity of the questionable gift of epilepsy, it is critical do so and in many respects it is. However embracing the mundane, whether morning, afternoon or evening, has the added value of comfort and calm. For those times when we are racing too fast, are overwhelmed or feel lost in all the stuff of life, we just may not have paid attention to our own details after opening our eyes in the morning. What do you think?

“Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, 

but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

~ Thomas Carlyle

Seeking Depth

Someone once said that boredom is when one is calm and contented. I’ve never recognized it as that, although when I think about it, there could be some truth to that statement. We spend our days busy doing things. Important work, important play, taking care of others, doing the mundane things at home to keep body and soul in one piece. In general not really sitting still for very long.

There is an energy inside of each of us that wants us to be active, busy. Shouldn’t there be something we should be doing?  Am I the only person to feel this edge of busyness? If we were to allow calmness and being content to be a focus in our days, there can be rewards reaped not considered before. Being calm gathers our energy to do the things we enjoy, to be productive in our work. Being content creates an aura that we bring with us as we move through our lives. Plumbing the depths of the idea that we are bored because we have no place to run, puts a different perspective on day-to-day activities.

Yesterday, I rearranged my bedroom furniture to be more pleasing. Today I made a delicious soup, just from ingredients in my own home. I’m going for a walk this afternoon to honour some of my new found energy. There are so many other things that filled the in-between moments tossed away as mundane. As I read this last paragraph, even I feel the urge to say that I haven't done enough or been busy enough.

“Boredom is the conviction that you

 can’t change…the shriek of unused capacities.”

~ Saul Bellow,  The Adventures of Augie March

Signage

Heeding signposts planted along the way is not especially easy when the signposts are internal. Not the ones on the streets and over highways that give us directions, or just the signage that indicates a grocery store, a shopping mall or a gas station. I reference the signposts given us by our grandparents, parents, teachers and mentors, some with gentler or louder voices than others. They have all fed our soul’s inner wisdom, our self esteem, our minds and hearts. It is up to each individual to discern which become positive self talk and which become negative self talk.

There is a particular, more insidious signpost, that can challenge the value of going deeper, not wider. I suppose it could be called self sabotage, but that sounds a little too psychological for my taste today. Two terms come to mind: cabin fever, experienced in long, cold winters, and then there is frugal fatigue. Cabin fever, in my experience, is the result of burrowing deep inside our homes during winter storms. It is full of angst, snappy tempers and just longing for even one spring day - just one! Frugal fatigue seems to be the result of burrowing deeper into what we already have. In Daniel Cain’s blog, at raptitude.com, he discusses our learned need for constant newness. Along with going deeper into what we have, there is a drop in shopping unless it is for groceries, or some article of clothing or shoes that are needed. Shopping is that most treasured of activities our society has come to know and participate in sometimes with wild abandon. There is a fairly high degree of social activity accompanying shopping. It may be a shopping spree with a good friend, but for the most part it is the interactions with other shoppers, the experience of having the hum of other people around and the pleasantries at the till that create this social activity. After all, it is called retail therapy by many participants. 

Frugal fatigue, like cabin fever, can be most disconcerting, even though everyday a quality of richness exists within our homes. So much has been neatly tucked away in a cupboard or closet. Finding a social depth within our communities provide a solution to this unexpected problem.

“…learning to live without regular doses of the little high we get when 

we start something new. If we indulge in it too often, we can 

develop a sort of ‘sweet tooth’ for the feeling of newness itself.”

~ Daniel Cain, raptitude.com 

To Cherish with Care

Robert Burnaby Park, Burnaby, B.C. August 2016

Taking our memories and cherishing them, the foundation of our lives ~

joyous or sad, funny or hurtful, memories add depth and texture to life

no need to define our growth, shadowing the ways we move ~

like loving the sunshine, careful it does not burn our tender skin.

“What’s past is prologue.”

~ William Shakespeare,

The Tempest

Plan to Pause

Planning for today and tomorrow

Creates a moment to pause

Edging a toe into the shallows

Gauging the safety of moving forward

Each plan carries it’s own depth of meaning

“Before beginning, plan carefully”

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero