Keeping up!
The next dense salad post is well on its way but I have to download pics, file them, resize them (?), etc. I’m treating these longer posts like traditional magazine articles because that’s what I used to write. And, literally, there are few things I would rather do with my mornings than sit and write for 5 hours, but life has intervened. I’m getting ready to leave town (that would not really be a town, but the island) for a couple of weeks. Two separate trips, both to reunions, one in Michigan and the other in Las Vegas, and both by plane.
I love to travel and have done a lot of it, but flying is not travel. It’s just a way to transport you from point A to point B and I find it exhausting sometimes. That’s because I can’t get there from here . . . at least not very fast. I have to leave home 5+ hours before my flight out of Seattle, and if I’m landing east of the Mississippi I need to compromise a night’s sleep. Period. Either I take a red-eye, get up at 2:00 a.m. to leave, stay at a motel in Seatac where I don’t sleep well, or arrive near midnight and am so wound up I can’t get to sleep at the other end, partly because their midnight is my 9:00 p.m. and partly because I’m so excited to see the sleepy people who picked me up.
But there is a huge advantage to leaving and that’s the deadline it creates. I have so few of them in my life that I need discipline to get things done in a timely manner . . . friends call . . . there’s that great music event on the island . . . “Yes, I’d love a beach walk this morning!” (Now that the sun is out, we’re in high social season.)
Suddenly, I have to clear the decks . . . mostly. Put the new license plates on because I won’t be able to drive without risk of a ticket when I get home. Write the press release and create a poster for the knitting gig I’m doing while in Las Vegas, facilitate getting the “book warehouse” lawn mowed, clean out the fridge, send beloved son his Vita-Mix because the blender at work broke (include the wok and a few mom-care-package-treats hence biiigggg box), meet with young friends about creating the silly video trailer for Sweater 101. Whack down the thistles so they don’t go to seed before I get back, get the checks out for the special account for which I’m the volunteer banker . . . etc . . .
And as I look over this list . . . hmmmm . . . looks like lots of “busyness” here.
I’ve always been attracted by images of Justice, the Goddess. It’s not her sword or blindfold, but the scales she holds that fascinate me. They’re always gently moving. Sometimes they get whacked by something, like starting a big new project, and they swing violently. But Justice stands still . . . and they eventually calm down and come back into that gently mobile balance.
Maybe a long trip by car, shuttle bus, plane, car . . . like the 17-hour one I’ll start tomorrow . . . is a chance to hold still and let things come back into balance. As a young woman I always carried a book and knitting with me when I was being transported. Now I like to look at the people around me or out the window. And I snooze a lot. I’m just taking a little time to let things settle back into balance.
