Thursday, October 29, 2009

Sit Down and Pay Attention

Yesterday, I didn't go to work. In the morning, I just felt tired. Not like "too bad you got a bad night's sleep" tired. It was more like "I can't move" tired. It felt different and bad. I slept the whole day. I worked from home for a little bit, feeling very virtuous -and then that was it. Bed. I think all I did was take out the trash and answer a few e-mails.

Possibly this was a message from the universe.

Then later that day, I heard that my brother had had a cardiac scare. He's fine. In the way of 40-something year old men, he is going to have to monitor his blood pressure and stress, and get some exercise even though, I fully agree, there is no time.

Possibly this was a message from the universe.

Early this morning, still sick (and now diagnosed with the flu), I heard that a friend has cancer. It's a "good" kind of cancer -highly treatable, and very slow growing. But it's scary for her, scary for her friends, and re-arranges life's priorities in the way that these worrisome diagnoses do.

Possibly this was a message from the universe. I think I have been told to sit down and pay attention.

Eliminate activities that serve neither your goals nor other people.

Add exercise.

Add meditation and reflection.

And do these things, not because I'm scared, or the universe is threatening me. Rather, I think the universe is telling me that I have important work to do, and that I need to be here to do it. To be here -to be fully present- in the things I am doing, that's my task. To do that, I have to be healthy.

So, I'm looking again at my calendar. How can the time budget be tweaked so that the important things are tended??

2 comments:

Nina said...

it only gets tweaked by dropping something(s) off. prune the list of daily stuff that's sapping your ability to do the things you're afraid of doing.

I like to look in the rearview mirror monthly that I did one thing that scared me. It's my way of sneaking up on myself. I can't plan for it, I can only look back at it.

I Drink and I Know Things... said...

So, it's not just a question of better time management? Damn. I try to do things I'm afraid of, surrounded by lots of support. "You only have to do this little part, and then you can knit for half an hour." Or whatever. It's stupid, but since my whole life scares me, at least it gets me up and moving.