I am getting a lot of office work done today: Spanish conversation exercise for class, editing a draft for the Great Spirit Church newsletter that I do in addition to the Mt. Hood Cherokees newsletter. I just finished the draft ballot for the Cherokees election, coming up next month. I am the main person on the Elections Committee. I have cleared out most of my email inbox. I prepared multiple Christmas letters for a second attempt at delivery, now that they were returned to me, yellow stickers attached with the new addresses I needed to use. I popped a copy of a friend’s will into an envelope after Pedro and I signed as witnesses, and it’s going to Kellen, who (younger than all our friends) has been asked to be the executor. I boxed up a single shoe (!) found in the back of the Jeep after friends stayed with us. The shoe needs to go join her partner, who lives in Washington, D.C. Soon I will make a trip to the post office to mail it all.
I brought kitty out here to my office this morning, to keep her from bugging Pedro, who was trying to sleep a little more. She was not having fun at all until she realized how many critters she could see through the giant windows out here. Like the many hummingbirds buzzing around.
It is a challenge for me to enjoy down time. I am an over-achiever, even when it comes to play. If I do something enjoyable, there’s a little critic inside my mind that tells me I must somehow be productive in play, or play the best I’ve ever played, or play in a new, educational way. I tire myself out with this. And I am actively working on learning to slow down and goof off.
But still…I love to get a whole list of things done. I mentally checked all those things off my list and I don’t have to think about them after today. I cannot deny how good it feels.
Conscious Engagement 