SOLC #7 – pruning

I have found that a little pruning and pinching back will make an indoor plant last much longer.  This is at least as important as watering because it creates room for new growth and it makes the plant look prettier and less likely to get thrown on the compost pile.

Over the last week, it has been suggested, more than once, the I might need to do a bit of pruning and pinching back in  my own life.  Too many evenings out with meetings or other commitments, not enough time to read or knit or sew.  I have been thinking about this quite a bit over the last few days.  The sun is shining and I have stretched my time on the trail to a full hour, soaking up the warmth and vitamin D as I walk and think.  I have talked to some who are near and dear to me, venting my frustration and receiving some encouragement.  And I can see a place or two where I might be able to create space for new growth.  It will take a few weeks to close out these activities.  I am not prone to quitting in the middle of something.  The challenge will be to keep those spaces open instead of filling them up again.  But for the most part, I am not feeling pinched, not feeling the need to prune too drastically.  It has taken me a long time to get to this place and I am pretty comfortable in this clay pot of a life I lead.

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A slice of balance

I did my workout video this morning and Kathy Smith urged me to stretch, to push beyond what is easy and to find that place of balance, just before it gets so hard that you want to quit.  Not a bad goal for the rest of life too.  That place where you have enough but not too much, a taste without feeling stuffed.  But I tend to go to the extreme.  I often wonder if I could ever be one of those people who reads one book at a time, has one craft project going, joins just one committee or group, checks out only what I will read instead of a stack.  At this point in life, the answer is probably not.  But maybe I could aim a bit more for the balance, the place where I can enjoy what I have going on without feeling like I am going over the edge.  Maybe.

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going caffeine-free

I have often said that I could never give up caffeine.  I really enjoy my morning cup of coffee but lately, those cups have kept coming throughout the day.  When we moved our school this fall, I was no longer within walking distance of a Starbucks and found that it was easier to opt for a cup of tea at work.  Then my co-worker gave up caffeine for health reasons.  She kept telling me I should go along on this ride and I steadfastly refused.  But, I am beginning to cave.  Not completely mind you – I still want that first cup of coffee when I come downstairs to do my morning reading.  But I found a few new caffeine-free teas that I really like so I am making an effort to limit my caffeine to one cup of coffee in the morning.  I have actually stretched that a bit by adding boiling water to my cup so that I can have two cups with the caffeine of one.  I find myself drawn to the tea aisle in the grocery store now, looking for caffeine free teas.  What is really interesting is how others react when you say you are cutting caffeine out.  It seems to create anxiety for a lot of people.   It has only been a week so I don’t know if this might help my sleep patterns then I will have more support for my case.

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who do I do it for?

This is a question I have been pondering of late.  Trying not to cave to the tyranny of the urgent, the demand to produce is a tough one.  My garden has been neglected for too long.  My fabric sits waiting patiently.  Books, journals, pens and pencils gather dust as I allow myself to be pulled away, to “be productive”.   So the question, who do I do all of this for?  When we are newly married, start a new career, have young children, it is so easy to fall into the pattern of doing this or that because the family, the co-workers, the children need it.  But as I stroll into this new season of life, I want to be sure that there are times when the answer is, I do it for me.  So the gardening tools will come out of the garage, the fabric has been pressed and stacked on the cutting table, and there is a book in my bag, ready to be consumed.  Just because I need to.

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Balance and grace

My blue cotton pants and sports tank are a far cry from the pink leotard and tutu but as I worked on the standing poses with my yoga tape today, I was transported back to some of my first dance class memories.  The music was Glow little glow worm and our little four year old bodies wobbles and lunged in all the wrong places.  I think we stopped short of bumping into one another but those first days of learning that dance definately lacked balance and grace.  I haven’t done yoga in a long time.  I am not as flexible as I was even a few years ago.  But I hope that if Miss Nancy could teach us that little dance for our first recital, that I can conquer the standing tree pose before the month is over.

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