Happy 4th of July!

Having two Friday nights in one week works for me! Tuesday felt like Friday and that is a good thing! I did my 7:30 a.m. walk with my co-worker Tuesday. The morning walking seems to agree with both of us. A good thing since the heat of summer SHOULD be here soon…I did go for another jaunt at the end of the day before I went to Shaw’s to buy the cherries for my father and then deliver them to him. I wanted to make sure I set the stage for a complete day at home for the 4th if I decided that was the way I wanted to go. I want to go to the beach on Saturday so I felt I wanted to putter around here and read. I was thinking of going to a Monique and the Mango Rains event in Vermont on 7/7/7, but the 3 hour ride each way for a day trip convinced me that maybe I should wait for an event closer to home. My book club assignment is not until November, so I have some time to work with. I thought the weather would force my hand for today’s activities, but looks like the rain will be a late night event. I will see where my mood takes me. My co-worker’s part time job company is grilling hotdogs today, so that might be worth a walk if I get in the mood.

The whole 7/7/7 seems to be pushing people to make it a memorable/meaningful day. I think the beach will do it for me.

I am loving my new little desk calendar at work. I think it will be an interesting journal of the range of things I do each day – and for the “next me” to use when that time comes. It is a good thing for me – everyday is different. Another new acquisition is that as we were walking I had a question about the working nature of the weathervane on top of our school chapel and my co-worker said she had a working compass in her car I could have! I love it! Not that the sun does not tell me that my apartment windows face north, but I just stood in my kitchen to “verify”. I love my gift! On the same walk – I guess it was an “astronomical” day – we ran into one of the science teachers walking his dog and I asked him when the next “astronomical day” was because I would like to go to our school observatory and look out the high powered telescope. The school is working on the technology to be able to “beam” information coming into the observatory to one of our smartboard screens. That would definitely be a “eureka” moment if I was a student in that classroom.

I am also loving the “travel” series in the NY Times – today it is about picnic-ing in Central Park. I will keep this handy for future use on one of my trips to NYC. (It seems that I am loving a lot today about what is happening in my life…)

From Bird by Bird: (about Writer’s Block)

“The word block suggests that you are constipated or stuck, when the truth is you’re empty. As I said in the last chapter; this emptiness can destroy some writers, as do the shame and frustration that go with it. You feel the writing gods gave you just so many good days, maybe even enough of them to write one good book and then part of another. But now you are having some days or weeks of emptiness, as if suddenly the writing gods are saying, “Enough! Don’t bother me! I have given to you until it hurts! Please. I’ve got problems of my own.””

“The problem is acceptance, which is something we’re taught not to do. We’re taught to improve uncomfortable situations, to change things, alleviate unpleasant feelings. But if you accept the reality that you have been given – that you are not in a productive creative period – you free yourself to begin filling up again.”

I like having a label for those days that set my hair on fire – like my beach days…I am doing my “filling up”.

From Freewill for week of July 5: British astronomer Martin Rees was told about a colleague who felt so puny and insignificant in comparison to the stars that he committed suicide. Rees responded with dismay, rejecting the perspective that had led a fellow astronomer to take his own life. "We are more important than the stars," he said. "I don't have a despairing attitude because what makes things important is not how big they are, but how complex and intricate they are, and human beings are more complicated and intricate than stars." While this is always good to keep in mind, Libra, it's especially apropos now. You're in a potent and radiant phase of your yearly cycle -- a time when you have a mandate to show why you're more important than the stars.

I am getting inspiration from every angle right now. The challenge is internalize it all on a daily basis and keep it going. It is not that I do not feel that emptiness that Anne Lamott talks about, but now I can look at that as “inspirational”…

Now I am inspired to have my breakfast. Happy 4th of July!

Quiet Sunday

After Saturday, Sunday was destined to be tame. I took it easy in the a.m. – obviously writing for a good chunk of the morning. It was a beautiful weather day, not hot enough to drive me to our town pool as I thought about in the a.m. Didn't really pay attention to the talking head shows except Chris Matthews.

Went into my parents’ to do wash, pick up the bagels my brother had left for me, and read newspapers, magazines and some of my latest book – The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra – I am loving it. Grocery shopping was a small event on the way home since the dining hall is back open for the summer campers. Then a good walk – the weather is hard to believe for July…I know we will be back to HHH soon, but I am enjoying this to the max.

As I promised – another quote from Bird by Bird – the author was having a conversation with her best friend who was in her final days of fighting a battle with cancer. This was the author’s admonition to her readers. Have I told you I love Anne Lamott books?! I need to get some of her non-fiction.

“And I don’t think you have that kind of time either. I don’t think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won’t be good enough at it, and I don’t think you have time to waste on someone who does not respond to you with kindness and respect. You don’t want to spend your time around people who make you hold your breath. You can’t fill up when you’re holding your breath. And writing is about filling up, filling up when you are empty, letting images and ideas and smells run down like water – just as writing is also about dealing with the emptiness. The emptiness destroys enough writers without the help of some friend or spouse.”

The balance of the day I watched my Sunday Q&A show – interview of the Librarian (20 year tenure) of the Library of Congress. I will have to add that to my next DC trip. Yesterday’s other news “news” focused on “our” Supreme Court and the 2008 Campaign. I am a bit put off – once again – about the money aspect of the campaigning…just does not make sense for me. Also watched some of an interview with Tommy Thompson, the story about his daughter’s miracle baby still moves me. The other news that got my attention is the weather – flooding and fires. I am flashing back to The Inconvenient Truth…

I have my academic year calendar ready to go. Today is the first day of the 2007-08 year at work. I will be curious myself to see what I do everyday and the range of my activity. It is also the first day of my schedule change – switching to a morning walk with my co-worker rather than during the work day…she wants to go longer – 3 miles at least - and we are planning ahead for hotter weather. So I am moving up my writing time a bit to make sure I get all my morning activities in before I leave for work. It has been awhile since I have done morning exercise, so I will see how that feels. But, with that said, I better get going. I am glad this is a 4 day work week for me!

Have a good, celebratory 4th of July week.