I am sipping my coffee and looking over the payday budget details.
I take a minute to properly appreciate how far I’ve come over the years, and how little stress or anxiety are associated with handling family finances and working with my Traveling Partner to develop (and stick with) a plan that supports us now, and prepares for our future. It feels good to see the bills paid reliably on time, and to feel so little tension (or terror) over money stuff. I give myself a mental pat on the back for a job well done, and offer my partner a silent thank you for his day-to-day encouragement and support, and the many excellent suggestions and strategies that have been part of getting us where we are. Nice to have a functioning partnership with everyone on the same page payday after payday.
Yesterday was a good day. My Traveling Partner and I enjoyed the afternoon together. I got quite a lot done. We enjoyed dinner together and had a pleasant evening – right up until things went unexpectedly wrong in conversation somehow. I’m still not sure what the fuck happened. My baggage collided with his, and the evening ended on an irritated note. Rather peculiarly, I actually got a good night’s sleep in spite of that, and woke feeling rested. I hope he did, too.
The house was quiet and dark when I got up a few minutes before my artificial sunrise could wake me. I had considered working entirely from home today, but seeing that my partner was sleeping, I went ahead on in to the co-work space, and started my day there. I’ve really been enjoying the quiet time this gives me to write without any concern whatsoever that my typing might wake my partner. I had barely seated myself and gotten my workstation logged in when he messaged me asking if I was okay; he remembered I had said I was planning to work from home today. I let him know I’m okay and was simply giving him room/opportunity to get more sleep. He didn’t reply, and I don’t know whether he went back to bed, or is still holding onto anger from yesterday…
…I could let myself get spun over the uncertainty of “where my partner’s head is” this morning… I decide against it and instead I finish the budget stuff, and then get another cup of coffee and enjoy some quiet time writing. Letting myself get carried away with insecurity and anxiety that has its source in untested assumptions is 100% bullshit and I like to avoid it when I can. 🙂
I look over my to-do list for the day (and weekend) ahead. It’s all pretty routine stuff. My partner and my physician are both concerned with various aspects of my current health, and as we all close in on the new year I am feeling more motivated and recommitted to taking care of myself with greater skill. I even picked up a blood pressure monitor to use at home, since there have been signs that my blood pressure may need attention. May as well keep an eye on that. I’ve got a project I want to complete before the end of the year (or at least before the holiday weekend is over) and it has emotional elements, some literal heavy lifting involved, and a fairly profound “letting go of baggage” element to it. Hell, it will even serve to reduce clutter once completed. It is to do with a rather colossal bin filled with my pen & ink journals spanning more than 30 years of my life… they have become more a millstone around my neck than anything of legitimate value, and it’s past time to do something about that. Getting actually started on it is… complicated. I’ve stalled too long. This weekend I’ll want to do that, and then also take down the holiday decorations (as is my practice). I’m glad the rest of my to-do list is all utterly routine stuff like laundry. lol
I’m amusingly excited about cooking these days. It’s amusing partly due to the absolutely mundane necessity of feeding oneself, and partly due to my ongoing eagerness to do so more skillfully, based on healthier recipes and ingredients, while also seeking to focus on calorie/portion control, fitness, and reduced waste. LOL It’s a bit comical, is all. It’s a lot to ask of a kitchen, or any given meal. 2022 saw the addition of the wok to my repertoire, and now the Instant Pot, and some gleaming new stainless steel cookware, too… I’ve got a lot to work with, and a lot to learn. Should keep me plenty busy in 2023. 😀
So… it’s a new year ahead. A new path to walk. How many literal miles on foot will I walk in the year ahead? I managed to average more than 1.5 miles a day in 2022… but… my goal was quite a lot higher than that, and I only hit my goal 57 days out of 365. I could have done better – and I could have done more. I’m not shaming myself or giving myself a hard time, just taking a closer look and recognizing where I came up short. I did find a local walking trail that could be a really good choice for close-to-home walking (just getting in the miles) that doesn’t look at all crowded, and appears well-maintained…so… there really isn’t any excuse not to get off my ass and onto my feet for a couple miles every day. I mean, aside from pain or “running out of spoons” – and I already have a long-standing commitment to myself not to let pain call my shots. 🙂 My results vary. (How very human.)
Another morning. Another cup of coffee. I woke with a song in my head. Yesterday was an okay day followed by a pleasant evening. Another peculiarly short night, though. I fell asleep, but woke shortly after, and read awhile until I was sleepy again – around midnight. I woke feeling a bit groggy, but sufficiently rested to push through another day.
I am thinking over some things I’d like to change (in my routine, in my environment, in my day-to-day experience of myself, or in my relationship). Success is dependent on practice, which leans hard on committing to a goal and a willingness to fail hard and begin again as often as necessary. It helps to set a careful well-considered pace to such things. Experience suggests a lot of “new year’s resolutions” fail because we are so prone to over-committing initially, then failing to practice. lol
One thing I definitely plan to work on is continuing to improve my approach to self-care and making a point to put myself at the top of my to-do list. Such a small thing – it sounds so easy. lol I regularly disappoint myself on this one, though. I’ll go out of my way to do some little thing for my Traveling Partner, but persist in short-changing myself when I shop, make decisions, and manage my time. It’s weird. I don’t think it’s unusual or uncommon, though. I’m not waiting on January 1st, either.
This year? I gave a lot of thought to something nice I could do for myself (that would have potential to be a nice quality of life boost generally, too) – I settled on a little something in the kitchen. I am enjoying improving my cooking. Decided to “level up” the quality of my pots and pans, as a token of my enjoyment, appreciation, and celebration of progress. “Something nice for myself.” Some careful shopping and a short wait later, and last night a couple of gleaming new beautiful high-quality stainless steel cookware items arrived, replacing the problematic non-stick cookware I’ve been using. Another sort of new beginning. 😀
…Even made in America…
I made additional commitments to myself:
New cookware in? The old item it replaces goes out. (Non-negotiable)
Any old non-stick cookware that isn’t used at least once in the next six months? It goes. (Clears clutter)
Take the kind of care of the new stainless cookware that I aspire to take of myself. (Living metaphor to reinforce self-care practices)
Small things. Small changes. Practice leads to incremental change over time. 🙂 I smile and finish my coffee. This feels like progress. I think about dinner…
There is a new year ahead. New challenges headed my way. New solutions to old challenges will get tested. There will be choices to make, and practices to practice. What matters most? That’s a choice, too, isn’t it?
What a pair of thousand dollar shoes looks like.
“What do you want out of life?” I ask myself this question every year. I reflect on the nature of desire, and the risk of greed overtaking my better nature. I reflect on sufficiency. I muse over how my perspective on “what matters most” has changed over the years. I consider the things that are within easy reach – and ask myself what I really want… and what I really need. What does matter most?
I don’t plan to buy a truly gorgeous pair of candy-apple red gleaming sky-high patent leather Louboutin pumps (not this year, nor any other) – less because they are costly (I could save and buy them if I chose to do so, right?), more because they aren’t something I want for myself at this place in my life. They lurk far outside the bounds of “sufficiency” (or “comfort”, let’s be real). They are beautiful. So beautiful. They’re just also “not for me”. That’s okay, too. I touch them. Snap a picture. I have the memory of the beauty of them. That’s enough.
…There is a metaphor here. Something to reflect on…
The new year is coming. What matters most (to you)? What will you do with the opportunities ahead? What changes will you make to become the person you most want to be? To live the life you most want to live? I’m just saying… it’s worth thinking about.
I am sipping my morning coffee (it’s good). It is the morning after Giftmas (it was lovely). Our holiday dinner was delicious (and ample). I am feeling fortunate (and grateful).
I slept better last night than I really expected to. My guts were churned up, rebelling against a “brunch” entirely of chocolate and coffee yesterday, followed by a heavy fairly rich meal at dinner time. I woke a couple times feeling a bit uncomfortable, not quite unwell. It passed. I even slept in a bit, and woke feeling pretty good generally, although aware of my arthritis in the background, and still bruised here and there from my fall on the deck on Giftmas Eve.
I haven’t made a firm plan for today. I probably ought to go to the grocery store… I’m not sure I feel like going out at all. I’m also not sure I don’t. Coffee first. Maybe some time reading by the fire? I am thinking about The Four Agreements. It was first suggested to me by my Traveling Partner. It’s clear that the recollection of them still exist in his thinking. Occasionally, he “calls me out” when I fail to practice one of them in our interactions together. I try to process such things as useful feedback, rather than kick up a fuss about it.
I’ve gotten a lot of really useful practical wholesome insight from The Four Agreements over the years, since I first read it in… 2010?
We have learned to live our lives trying to satisfy other people’s demands. We have learned to live by other people’s points of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough for someone else.
Don Miquel Ruiz, The Four Agreements
Here’s the simple truth of everything we learn, and everything we do; we become what we practice.
Practice being calm? We become calm individuals over time. Practice being kind? Kindness becomes a hallmark of our decisions and thinking. Practice lifelong learning? We become educated as we gain knowledge. It is seriously that “simple” to change who we are, if we choose to do so – it’s a matter of practice, and time.
…Here’s the thing, though…
If we practice being angry? We become less able to manage anger appropriately (we become angrier more easily, more often). If we practice aggression? We become more aggressive. If we practice lashing out at others in moments of stress? Yep. You’re catching on; we do more of that, more often, more quickly – we get really “good at it”.
We each have the tools of change in our possession. We have more control over who we are (and therefore also more responsibility) than we may like to acknowledge. Doesn’t mean the journey is always easy. Doesn’t mean we’re in this alone. We live within the context of our circumstances, our relationships, our triggers, our biases – we are human. Personally, my own thinking on that is that this gives me choices – who do I most want to be? How do I practice that? My emotions may be a reaction to my experience, to the world around me, or to a person with whom I am interacting, but that doesn’t get me off the hook for managing those; they are mine. If I practice having tantrums? I will have tantrums. If I practice calm reflection and deep listening? My reaction to the world around me becomes characterized by calm, and consideration. Because I am so human, avoiding provocation can be quite difficult – but I know that even this is about practice. Like it or not, human primates are not entirely domesticated and can be dangerous under some circumstances… we really only ever “have control” of one of them – the one in the mirror. Limited control at best, too. Our practices matter.
It can be hard, sometimes, to practice The Four Agreements. They seem so easy, and I suppose they are easier than a lot of things – they just take practice. Rather a lot of it. (Worth it.)
It can be hard to practice The Four Agreements (or frankly, any personal growth practice) if someone I interact with routinely doesn’t share the basic values or at a minimum respect what I am hoping to do by practicing them. It’s harder still if there is someone in my day-to-day social group or community actively seeking to undermine my progress or growth. Over time, I’ve cut quite a few people loose who seemed invested in the most broken possible version of me. I think that’s the healthiest approach to toxic relationships; end them. That comes up in The Four Agreements, too:
If someone is not treating you with love and respect, it is a gift if they walk away from you. If that person doesn’t walk away, you will surely endure many years of suffering with him or her. Walking away may hurt for a while, but your heart will eventually heal. Then you can choose what you really want. You will find that you don’t need to trust others as much as you need to trust yourself to make the right choices.
Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements
The new year approaches. I’m thinking about who I am, who I most want to be, and what practices keep me on my path. We become what we practice. I smile when I think of how many times I have said that, written it down, read it back to myself – it’s a core idea (for me) in becoming the woman I most want to be. Beginning again is just a beginning (obviously) – it’s that stepping stone to the next bit of practice. We become what we practice. It’s not avoidable or negotiable. It is inevitable. Practice something – anything – long enough and it becomes characteristic of who we are. Good or bad.
Everything you have ever learned, you learned through repetition. You learned to write, to drive, and even to walk by repetition. You are a master of speaking your language because you practiced.
Don Miquel Ruiz, The Four Agreements
So… here’s a question that matters… What are you practicing? What effect does who you are have on the world around you? On your relationships? On people you say you love? Are you the person you most want to be? Maybe it’s time to reflect and make some changes to your practices?
Note: this is a long one (>1500 words), figured you might want to know that before you get started. LOL
I’m on the coast with my camera for a couple days solo. I definitely need this sort of break from the day-to-day relatively frequently – one of my most easily identified regrets in life as an adult is that I waited so long to begin making a point to take this time for myself. I’m fortunate that my Traveling Partner recognizes the need, too, and supports me taking care of myself. The change in my medications has been a good thing, generally, but it also seemed to have accelerated my need to “take a couple days” to pause and reflect deeply on my experience, and to indulge in some time spent alone with my thoughts.
My timing is a bit awkward for this getaway; it’s the weekend before Giftmas. My Traveling Partner’s planned work while I am away was almost immediately derailed by a fulfillment error in a part shipped for his CNC machine; it’s the wrong part, which stalls the build entirely while he waits for that to be replaced. Fuck. Furthering his frustration, a recently added (and carefully measured & placed) outlet turns out to be in a less than ideal location (even after taking tremendous care with measuring) and has to be moved. The end result? Well, I potentially should have planned ahead for a couple days after the fucking holidays, if nothing else. …But…I really was seriously struggling to get acclimated to the new medications (and change in timing of existing medications), and I was feeling very short-tempered and cross with… just every-damned-thing, honestly, and wanted to be well away from people in general. So… good timing? Poor timing? Hard to be certain.
I visited some interesting places. The gulls at Boiler Bay were happy to pose for me.
I am certain my partner misses me. I feel very loved. His attentiveness at a time when we both expected minimal contact with each other for reasons isn’t unwelcome – and it forces me to explicitly practice reasonable boundary setting with the one human being in my life with whom I most definitely struggle to do so; my partner. He can’t see what I’m up to when I’m away, so it’s entirely on me to choose to take a look at a message, or to set my “do not disturb” setting on my phone, or set expectations that I am – or am not – available to chat. That’s not even unexpected or unreasonable; it’s part of skillful adulting. Just happens that some of the emotional debris of my trauma history results in some fairly poor boundary-setting with those closest to me, and it’s something I need to practice. Kind of a lot.
Here’s one way this matters, as an example. I won’t text while I’m driving (it’s very dangerous), so if he messages me while I’m in motion, I often find myself parking the car to respond without even checking in with myself whether the conversation even needs to happen in real-time (most often it does not, and frankly when it does he calls me so we can just talk hands-free). It can add a crazy amount of “travel time” to a short errand if I fail to communicate that I’m driving and he’s not aware that I am; he will just go on having a conversation with me that feels reasonable to him, while I seek out a parking spot every couple minutes like I’m lost or something. LOL I even know this is neither necessary nor practical; it’s something I need to work on. Just one example of why the expectation and boundary setting can matter so much. There are for sure others.
…I’m working on it…
When I am reading, writing, painting – all of which require focus – I sometimes get exceedingly frustrated with interruptions. Same when I’m “at work”, at home. Interruptions wreck my focus. This is not “a me thing”, it’s true for a lot of people (including my partner, when he’s reading, or doing complex calculations, or taking measurements). Interruptions break focus. Well… who “owns” that? I think if a clear boundary and clear expectations have been set, the person doing the interrupting owns that shit, and it’s pretty rude (if there’s no actual emergency). More often than not, though, I find that I’m the one who has erred in some way, by failing to ensure that I have set a clear expectation that I’m not available, along with a reasonable explicit boundary established with regard to interruptions of specific sorts of things. It’s for sure not reasonable to be irked with someone who did not know I was engaged in focused work, or needing to be left alone awhile, if they interrupt me unaware of those details.
In more succinct terms, if I don’t silence my ringer it’s not fair to be annoyed with a person who calls me at a bad time; I had another option that would have preserved my focus!
My earliest beach walk began at “first light”.
Yesterday, in the morning, I left for the coast before dawn. I arrived far earlier than “early check-in” for my hotel room (because the prior night’s guest hadn’t even checked-out yet). I spent the morning walking beaches and taking pictures, and in between I drank coffee while warming up in my car. Chilly morning. I drank 3x as much coffee as I generally do, and I expected I’d most likely messed up my sleep, later, but… nope. I checked into my room before 1 p.m., and managed to crash twice for longish naps, and then still went to bed early (like, for real early – around 7:30 p.m.). I slept deeply, waking around 3 a.m. to pee and immediately went back to sleep.
I made a point of snapping a picture of the holiday lights on the restaurant near the hotel during the wee hours. (It’s not a great picture; I was half asleep and never put on my glasses!)
I woke feeling quite rested, around 7 a.m. or a little after, around the time my Traveling Partner woke and pinged me a greeting. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised by how much I slept if I had felt that I was exhausted, or had felt deeply fatigued. Lacking those sensations, it caught me a bit by surprise to sleep so much. Still… it’s my time, my hotel room, I guess I can do what I like (within reason), including sleep the day away, which I definitely feel like I did, although my fitness tracker logged almost 7 miles of walking before noon. LOL
It’s been exceedingly pleasant (even luxurious) to have so little contact with other people for a couple days. The loudest sound in this hotel room is my fingers on this mechanical keyboard. (My tinnitus is infernally loud, too, but no one else would ever hear that.) The hotel staff go about their business. We don’t exchange words, just smiles; I’ve come here before and they are very respectful (and friendly if approached). I’ve managed to enjoy this trip to the coast without conversation beyond “can you fill it with regular please” or “16 oz Americano, please”. Yesterday was sunny. Today is gray and overcast. I spent yesterday sleeping (and walking and taking pictures). I’ve spent today meditating and writing (and walking and taking pictures). Time well spent all around, and mission mostly accomplished.
…I miss “home” (already), and take a few minutes to reflect with immense gratitude that I experience that feeling when I am away from the house I now live in. It’s already very much “home” – and filled with love, and memories of love, and the presence of this other human being who is so incredibly dear to me. I feel my heart fill up with my affection for my partner and spill over as “happy tears”. I am struck by how easily even the thought of this human being I love so deeply can move me with just the recollection of the love we share. That’s powerful. I miss him greatly any time we are apart – even when we are apart specifically because I just need to be alone for a while. It’s part of who I am. I am grateful that I’ve learned how to meet that need, and grateful to have a partner who “gets it”. I chuckle when I consider how often I do return home earlier than I had planned to, when I have gone, simply because I am so eager to be in the good company of my partner again. How very human. 🙂
Same location, different visit.
I watch the tides rise and fall on each of these trips to the coast. I am amazed by how much the view changes with each visit. The seasons change. The sunrise and sunset changes. The hour of the day for the high or low tide varies. The weather, too. Each detail paints the picture anew. I sip my now-cold coffee and think about that. So many variables. So many small details. I keep expecting to become bored with a single view or perspective. It hasn’t happened yet. I return to some locations with every visit just to see the view with “new eyes” on a different day. There’s something here worth understanding more deeply. I make a note on the notepad I’ve kept with me on this trip, and let my thoughts wander on.
I reflect awhile on the things that have held me back in life. Some of these were pure circumstance, others clearly my own doing or decision-making, few of them were the sort of non-negotiables that were unavoidable or immutable. I’ve had an enormous part to play in where I’ve landed in life. When I’ve chosen wisely, I’ve done well. When I’ve chosen poorly, I’ve often paid the price in consequences. This seems reasonable and “proper”, but when I reflect with care, deeply and honestly, and quite thoroughly, there have also been situations in which my good fortune “over-compensated” for my poor decision-making, and I’ve found my life improved thereby, anyway. Other times, seemingly good decision-making and actions that could be viewed as necessary, appropriate, or “right”, nonetheless resulted in… consequences of a wholly problematic sort. I have had an “enormous part to play” in where I’ve landed in life…but it’s also been a matter of “luck” more often than I can count, and some cases it’s been the help of friends or associates, or… just a coincidence that I’ve done as well as I have. Sometimes I’ve found myself standing in some unexpected moment in life struck by how unprepared I am to be there. Other times, extraordinary happenstance still manages to feel quite… ordinary. It’s hard to know in the moment which events are truly significant and meaningful, and which are simply future memories. Sometimes, when I’ve thought I was being “held back”, the passage of time has revealed how fortunate I really was to follow the path I did. Perspective has proven its worth more than once.
…My mind wanders on…
When I sat down with my notes this morning, I had some specific things I wanted to consider. I walked the beach with my camera and my little notepad, thinking, walking, pausing now and then for a tidepool, a bird, or an interesting rock. I don’t know that I “got anywhere” specific – but I wasn’t following a map, or hiking a trail with a destination, or running an errand. I was, frankly, as much as anything, just giving myself the space and time to really “hear myself think”. Was I successful? In every way I that I needed to be, sure, I think so. Is this bit of writing the outcome of all that? Mmm. Doubtful. Not in any clear cause & effect practical sense. I wasn’t seeking to develop a plan of action, or practice a specific practice, or write an essay on a topic. I just needed, rather earnestly, some solitary time to hear myself and to just be, quite as I am, without any sense of needing to chase a change or measure up to a standard. In that sense, it’s been a wildly successful bit of time away. Would a get away of this kind do wonders for you? No idea, honestly, and I’m sure it kind of depends on how well (or poorly) you are able to enjoy some solitary time – maybe that’s not your thing? Maybe you hate being absolutely alone? Your results would surely vary. Hell, my results vary and I greatly enjoy my solo time away, any chance I get make.
I breathe. Exhale. Relax. I check my oxygen. 99%. Nice. I take a moment to “feel where I’m at”, physically. Headache? It’s there, but not distracting. Arthritis pain? Managed. Posture? Yeah, okay. I notice it’s not great and “pull myself upright”. I gaze out the window across the mud flats of Siletz Bay – the tide is pretty low. There are a variety of water birds enjoying that, including a couple of larger birds – some kind of crane, and a heron. The gulls have taken their fun elsewhere for now. The water is flat, smooth, and very calm (what I can see), though I know if I step to the patio door and look out toward the ocean, I would see the waves gently kissing the shore.
I take a moment to reflect on a past that no longer wholly defines me (or holds me back) and to wonder what the future may hold, without becoming stranded in either. I sit quietly with my thoughts, poised in this “now” moment feeling fairly prepared to just “go with it” – whatever “it” may turn out to be. It’s a nice alternative to catastrophe, chaos, and despair. I breathe. In, then out. Then again. Some minutes later, I realize I slipped into meditation, fingers still poised carefully on the home row of the keyboard, expectantly. I’ve got a book (a couple, actually) that I also want to spend some time (reading)…
Evening Light 