Albuquerque resembles Rochester today!
If you don’t believe me, ask the (-+) million people who call this area “home” and who have no way of getting anywhere! It makes me grateful for the Chinese New Year food preparation in the refrigerator. We have plenty of food, and all without having made the ubiquitous "French Toast Run."
(Hailing from up north, whenever there was bad weather forecast, people would go to the store and buy bread, eggs, and milk. What exactly were they going to do with all of that?)
I’m enjoying the morning, delving into a pleasure-read, Tsh Oxenreider’s “Notes from a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World.” I’ve been reading this during fringe-minutes this week. One quote from this book really grabbed me:
“It’s hard to slow down when the race has no finish line."
How many artists feel this way? Academics? Entrepreneurs? Newlyweds with big dreams and wild imaginations? People who use the internet at all?
I have fallen prey to this many a time. There are always updates to do. Take, for example, things that I must do or start this week, or there will be negative consequences. These are in no particular order:
1. Practice for upcoming concerts (March 6, 7, 8)
2. Reach out to people high-up in my related industries about opportunities or networking
3. Send out email blasts to potential audience members for early March concerts
4. Two grant proposals and an application for a conducting internship
5. Our taxes
6. The final claims package against the *most awful movers ever* (and believe you me, when we receive our refund and the case has been completed, they will receive a very interesting online review, along with a file to Better Business Bureau in three states ...
7. Catch up on an ever-growing pile of paper correspondence (thank-you notes).
8. Finish photo editing and posting from three major photography projects
9. Start the program notes for my faculty recital
10. Mail Chinese New Year cards (we don’t do Christmas cards, which is a blessing because December is wrought with travel and end-of-semester. February timing works *much* better for us!).
11. Pick up where I left off on my private nutrition / personal finance business and ministry
12. Edit sound and video from three recent concert-projects ...
13. Yuan PhotoYearbook, 2014 (I do a “yearbook” of photos and quotes every year). I gave one to Zheng for Valentines’ Day last year. This year, the photo book may be a birthday gift.
I know by sitting down and making a schedule or action plan, this can all seem more tangible. Most of it this time around, I can’t delegate - or it won’t get done the way I would do it. And also, most of these items fall into the category of “I want to do something better, start something, or build something.”
To be continued! I have started putting more firm boundaries on myself:
a) Ready for bed by 11PM
b) Up by 7AM
c) No email-checking during the day [glance once in AM, and then respond after the work day]
And about the slowing down? A lot of these tasks are process-oriented, yes - with a product in mind, but a lot of it is about the process (practicing, writing, photo-editing). If the process is rushed, the product will suffer. And I hate nothing more than to do things again because they weren't done right the first time.
(Practicing and exercising are quite the obvious exceptions to this!).
Here’s to new goals, and new boundaries!
Despite the above "list" - I am going to allow myself an “Artists’ Walk” today and photograph the Winter Wonderland. For all of the big snows we got in Rochester, I couldn’t bear to go out and take a walk … and as a result, I have little winter footage with my *amazing* DSLR camera from that time! I'm not going to waste the opportunity here.
I will take some photos with the iPad right in the house, and leave the real photography for another post.
Until then, stay warm!
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