Eating That Elephant

Here’s my mindfulness bracelet. The beads are made from marbled polymer clay, stamped with rubber stamps, and “embossed” with pearlex. Some of the wire work was done on wigjig, and some by hand.

This is a bracelet I made after a workshop on soul wisdom. We were supposed to first be aware of what we knew at a deep level (mine was that I need to enjoy the moment more and not live in the future) and commit to an action that would anchor that awareness. I knew that adding another todo item to be mindful each day was not the answer:) So this is what I came up with. If you can’t see it, it says joy, True, Laugh, love. These were the words I happened to have that I liked best 🙂

Mindfulness

Simply Charming Swap Bracelet

I and others swapped charms – I made the wire-wrapped polymer bead on the far left.

Charm bracelet details

Individual charms on the swap bracelet

A friend of mine had the idea of worrying for only 15 minutes and then being done with worrying for the day. (Worrying, in this case, is really a codeword for obsessing about, well, all the things that moms obsess about). Sounds good doesn’t it? I was going to do that but that was 30+ minutes ago. I got sucked into reading email. Then into doing “urgent” tasks. Sigh.

When I get like this the thoughts go round and round so fast I can’t keep up. It goes like this…I would love to be blogging this. I ought to update my blog. I should post to it more regularly. (Why? For others? Hmmm.). Thinking about blogging makes me remember that I’m blogging with a friend about a book we want to write, which makes me want to work on that. Thinking about working on our book makes me want to contact my friend and all my clients. Thinking about my clients makes me want to work on business….there must be a mouse and a cookie in here somewhere.

So what to worry about? I have a week between Christmas and New year and it feels like I should do all the things I haven’t done this year in this week. I simultaneously want to get my house all clean, relax and enjoy my crafts and hobbies, work on my business, call all my friends, spend quality
time with my family, catch up on paperwork, make all kinds of yummy food to stock the freezer for school days….well, I’m sure there is more but we all get the picture.

And of course, what I really “should” be doing is just being thankful to be here unhurt. My reality check – that all this other stuff is just not important enough to stress over – lasted exactly 3 days. Does that make me ungrateful?

Why do I do this to myself? What is special about this week that makes me want to get everything in the world done?

Ok, off to spend the last 10 minutes of quality worrying time with my todo list.

We’re all fine. Have to start with that.

My neighbor/friend Carolyn and I and our two boys were going to go skiing
today. Two miles before we got there, we skidded, swerved, skidded, and
ended up sliding off the road and 137 feet down the side of a mountain
(very close to vertical, no exaggeration), rolling once or twice and
landing upside down hanging by our seatbelts. Luckily there was a ton of
snow so it slowed us down a bit and the slide was very soft for going over
a cliff.

We were going slow (less than 30) uphill; the road seemed fine (wet and
slushy) and there must have been ice but the people behind us,who stopped
abruptly when they saw us go over, didn’t notice any loss of traction. We
think the tires were bad or something went wrong with the 4 wheel drive.

No-one was even hurt which was pretty miraculous. The children both had
booster seats (despite being way over the age requirements for
Colorado). Somehow the ski boots which ended up in the front on the
windshield didn’t whack anyone. We were able to unbuckle everyone from the
“ceiling” and the power windows still worked and one door opened. The many
people who stopped were incredible and formed a chain up the steep side of
the hill and got us up and into a warm car. Sorting it out took most
the rest of the day but we are all safe and sound at home.

I’m so thankful that I chose to put in the booster seat even though Alex is
almost at its weight limit (otherwise he likely would have slipped down
under until the seatbelt was on his belly, since his legs aren’t long
enough for SUV seats), that I anchored the booster in, that we stopped to
put up Ben’s headrest to the right height, that we made Ben sit up straight
instead of laying down for a nap. I’m thankful that someone saw it (and
that the first thing the witness told us after finding out we were OK was
that the car was stable and wouldn’t go anywhere). I guess I have
something to put in our holiday letters now….

Please, everyone, don’t get lazy with safety. Over 80% of carseats are
installed incorrectly (usually not tight enough – if you can wiggle it more
than an inch or two side to side, you may need to put your whole weight in
it and tighten it). IIRC, children should be in boosters until their legs
fold at the seat edge without pulling them forward and until the seatbelt
rests across their shoulder. Anchor seats and boosters if you can (the one
that wasn’t anchored slipped out from under the child when we rolled, but
he was OK).  Drive safe this season.

So you can tell from the date of my last entry – I’m a blog failure!! I started a blog and then never wrote in it! This reminds me of high school when I would get a new journal, write, “July 19th…nothing much happened today” and so on for a few days, and then never write in it again.

Thank goodness there haven’t been any comments that I didn’t see. There must be a way to get notifications of changes through email.

Sigh. For someone that prides herself on technical savvy I’m embarrassed.

Nothing much happened today.

This is my first blog entry ever. For someone that has been involved with (and addicted to 🙂 the internet since before it was common place or even a “phenomena”, as well as someone that never is lacking in things to say, it feels strange to be getting into blogging so late! But here I am.

There are so many thoughts swirling around in my head right now. My life feels so full, and there are so many threads of interest that I would like to follow – like a big pot of spaghetti, all interwined and messy. I can’t help but wonder, do others pack their lives this full and then agonize about how they can’t get enough done? Because, let’s be honest. I’ve done this to myself.

I do love my life. I enjoy trying (ok, starting!) new things; I love to be busy. I just frequently have this overwhelming sense sometimes that I can’t get on top of it all; that if I were just “better” (at what?) I would be able to manage it all more easily (so that I could fill it up THAT space with more new things, I suppose?). Other days, I just sweep all that mental clutter under a proverbial rug, and everything feels OK. I enjoy the moment…that is what it is all about, right? Just don’t look at the big pile in the corner of my head.

Anyway, welcome into my inner world. I have no idea where this will lead…but that is the nature of having a spaghetti life I suppose.