July 4, 2018 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags:

Last weekend after the new air conditioner was installed, I spent some time tidying up the area around it. I weeded, edged, spread some mulch, and replanted a small yucca that had been moved out of the way temporarily. My husband was very helpful carrying the bags of mulch. That area looks much better now.

New air conditioner with fresh mulch around it.

I hadn’t really noticed that it needed improvement before, but that is often what happens when old stuff like a worn-out air conditioner ends up staying around too long. Other things close to it that need maintenance also get overlooked, such as the need for mulch and edging. What’s going on, as far as I can tell, is that the subconscious mind sorts it all into the general category of stuff that’s not being done yet. Then we just keep on walking past it every day without even noticing.

The converse is also true—when there’s something new and fresh around, that makes all the old neglected stuff more noticeable and becomes a powerful motivator to get things in shape. As for my yard in particular, there are a few other areas in need of mulch. If it hadn’t been for the new air conditioner, I might have ignored them a while longer, but now they seem much more obvious.

My old air conditioner gave up the ghost yesterday. The service company was able to send people out to my house to put in a new one this afternoon, so I didn’t roast too much; but it was a large unplanned expense. Not exactly unexpected, as the old unit obviously didn’t have much life remaining. It had gotten so noisy that I pulled my bed away from the wall last year, so it wouldn’t disturb my sleep.

While I might have preferred to keep it going a while longer and spend the money on something else, having a new, quiet, modern air conditioner is a good thing. And being able to buy it right away is something to be grateful for in itself, rather than having to leave the windows open all summer (which happened about twenty years ago in our starter house when we didn’t have much money). So, I can’t complain.

Word-art that says "Happiness isn't about getting what you want all the time. It's about loving what you have and being grateful for it."

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I’ve been getting outdoors almost every day in the warm weather, rowing and bicycling. Although that’s fun and good for fitness, both my blog and my yard are starting to feel kind of neglected. I keep meaning to sit down and write a post or a story, but then I wander off and do something else instead. My flower garden is full of thistles that grew back after I weeded last month, when I meant to put down fresh mulch but never got around to it. Thistles can be pretty in nature when they’re blooming in a field, but I would like them much better if they would stay there.

Thistles blooming in a field.

(photo credit: publicdomainpictures.net)

If anyone happens to find my responsible grown-up self, please let me know. I’m really not sure what became of her. After all those blog posts I wrote about imaginary conversations with my younger selves, I’m beginning to wonder if I turned loose an inner child who just wants to go out and play all the time.

While it’s probably about time I lightened up a little on those self-imposed To-Do list entries, I haven’t yet gotten comfortable with the empty places where they used to be. I feel as if I might wake up one morning, with only a vague memory of strange thumping noises in a dream, and discover a mindspace like a half-empty attic where a gleeful Younger-Me has tossed dusty old boxes and furniture out the window to make room for a hopscotch grid on the floorboards, decorated in all the colors of the sidewalk chalk bucket.

Last week’s heat wave in this area has finally broken; today was much cooler, and a light rain was falling all through the day. Although I stayed indoors and there wasn’t a bit of sunshine to be found anywhere, I felt cheerful anyway when I looked out the window because the grass and flowers, which had gotten parched in the heat, were visibly greening up and looked so happy to be alive.

Wishing everyone visiting my blog a happy Thursday too!

Word-art that says "Be so happy that when others look at you, they become happy too."

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Last weekend my house felt like it had gotten totally overrun with dogs. My daughter, who has two dogs, came to visit while she was dog-sitting for a third. They were all very well-behaved the entire time, so I can’t complain; but the house did feel kind of crowded.

We played a game of Monopoly while sitting on the floor and managed to avoid having our little plastic houses, etc., knocked off by playful dogs wandering onto the board. Then I thought about how fortunate we are to have such a close family—pets and all.

For Nurturing Thursday, here’s a dog picture for all my awesome readers.

Word-art with a dog that says "Who's awesome? You're awesome!"

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I make a point of surrounding myself with cheerful images, particularly in my house, because I believe that the things we regularly encounter in our environment go a long way toward creating who we are. Even though we may not be fully aware of what is going on around us from one day to another, the subconscious mind notes the smallest of changes and looks for new ways to put those perceptions together, updating the stories it tells about life in the world.

When my husband bought me a digital art display as a Christmas present in 2015, I thought he understood me very well and was being especially kind and thoughtful. Recently he said that he hadn’t entirely understood my beliefs in that regard, but just thought it was an interesting gadget that I would probably like. Still, it was a much appreciated gift; and it goes to show that kind acts often have unexpected ripples. In keeping with the water metaphor, I’m displaying a bright, colorful image of boats in a canal today.

Wishing my readers many cheerful sights and ripples of kindness too!

Brightly colored image of boats docked in a canal between buildings.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I’m still wearing the Fitbit Alta that I got in April; it’s helpful for reminding me to get up from my desk chair more often, drink plenty of water, and get enough sleep. There is one thing it doesn’t do, though; I often row on the river, and the Fitbit is not programmed to identify rowing motions, so it doesn’t include that when it counts time spent exercising. It recognizes other activities such as walking, running, and bicycling.

That left me wondering if I should turn off the icon on the Fitbit phone app that counts days of exercise, so as not to be annoyed by it. After giving that some thought, however, I decided that walking more would be a healthy, nurturing thing to do, whether or not I row. Now that the warm summer days are here and getting outside for a walk feels refreshing, it’s another way to take better care of myself.

Word-art that says "Be kind to everyone, including yourself."

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

I got outdoors a lot over the long weekend—rowing and bicycling, and the hot weather was just right for the swimming pool. My daughter and her husband came down from Cleveland to visit. Their Labradoodle puppy still hasn’t quite figured out how to walk up the pool steps, but at least he has discovered that he can stand on the bottom step and leap out of the pool.

There wasn’t really much time for blogging, which was okay until an annoying self-critical part of my subconscious began to draw unfavorable comparisons to my creative output in the past. Maybe you’ve lost your mojo, it suggested nastily. You haven’t written much in months. What happened to the days when stories just popped into your head all the time, no matter how busy you were?

At first I tried to dismiss the voice, but then I started wondering—did I really have that much more creative energy in the past? Maybe this was just selective memory playing tricks on me, highlighting times when my younger self bubbled over with new stories, while skipping over the mundane stuff. How would I know?

Then it occurred to me that an imaginary visit with one of my younger selves might help me find an answer to that question. I decided to call her Butterfly because there was a time, many years ago, when I pictured one as my animal spirit guide, carefree and flitting easily from one place to another.

I tried to construct a mental image of this younger self sitting comfortably with a pen and notepad in hand, busily scribbling away. She had her own ideas about that, however. The comfy chair stayed empty; and when Butterfly finally showed up in my mindspace, she was pedaling cheerfully along on a three-speed bike from the 1970s, with her bell-bottom jeans rolled up so they wouldn’t catch and rip on the chain.

I was riding next to her in the same workout clothes I wore on Sunday in the park, on my Made-in-the-USA fifteen-speed Huffy bicycle from 1994. It still works just fine, as does my husband’s matching bike. (Over the weekend he upgraded both bikes with nice modern carbon-fiber water bottle holders, which, needless to say, is the only bit of carbon fiber to be found anywhere on them—but, at least now they’re not 100% ancient.)

Photo of Meg Evans on an old Huffy bicycle

“Hello,” I said to my younger self, as we rode slowly along a quiet, shaded path in the park. The fast-paced real world seemed very far away.

“Hi,” replied Butterfly in a distracted tone, just before stopping her bike in the grass beside the path and exclaiming, “Ooh, look at the pretty flowers!”

I stopped next to her, and yes, the flowers were pretty—wild roses and honeysuckle all tangled together like a bright, living curtain that swayed gently in the breeze.

“If I had my phone with me,” I said, talking more to myself than to my companion, “and this was a real place, I’d take a picture of these flowers for a blog post.”

Butterfly turned to face me, frowning slightly, as if she thought I’d said something very peculiar indeed. She inquired, “Don’t you ever do anything just to do it?”

Now it was my turn to feel perplexed. “Well, of course I do. I’ve spent a lot of time outdoors this spring. But lately I’ve been feeling like I haven’t had as much creative energy as usual—so, I thought I’d ask you about that. How do you manage distractions and stay creative?”

“Manage distractions?” she repeated blankly, as if I’d been speaking in a foreign language. Then, apparently losing interest in the flowers, she hopped back on her bike and pedaled briskly away, leaving me to catch up with her.

Wondering what I’d said to confuse her, I tried rephrasing the question. “I meant, how do you stay creative when you have a lot of things happening that distract you?”

“Well, usually they’re all different things, aren’t they?” Slowing down for a moment as we rode through a bumpy spot of dried mud, Butterfly raised her left hand in a vague gesture that seemed to include trees, grass, a squirrel, and some cottonwood fluff drifting softly to the ground. “And creativity has to do with fitting a lot of different things together in ways that make sense in the story, right? So, distractions should never be a problem, in themselves. If they aren’t naturally coming together into stories that make sense, then maybe the question to ask is: What other random thoughts have been wandering into the picture?”

After we rounded a curve, a straight, level pathway stretched before us, cool and pleasant in the shade of the overhanging trees. All I could hear was the chirping of the birds and the humming of our wheels.

“You know,” I said finally, “that way of looking at it does kind of make some sense.”

Butterfly, whose attention now seemed to be focused mainly on a woodchuck munching clover on the other side of the path, didn’t answer; but I thought I saw a little smile forming as she glanced away from me.

My husband and I have been getting out on the river a lot and enjoying the pleasant weather, which is why I haven’t done much blogging recently. The wildlife is always fun to watch. When we rowed our double yesterday, there was a goose standing on the bank watching us, next to a pair of ducks. I couldn’t take a picture because I never bring my phone in the boat, just to be sure I won’t drop it in the river; so, that’s why my post today is not called Duck, Duck, Goose.

It’s a beautiful Thursday morning here, and a fascinating world all around to explore. Wherever you may be off to, let your day be full of adventures!

Word-art that says "You're off to great places, today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way." -Dr. Seuss

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

A coworker who enjoys sending upbeat word-art to perk up our team attached this cute cat picture to an email recently, and my first thought was that it would be just right for a Nurturing Thursday post:

Cat picture word-art that says "Kindness is difficult to give away because it keeps coming back."

When I started writing this entry, though, I wasn’t sure how to relate it to anything I had done this week. My workdays had been pretty quiet, and it didn’t seem like I had given away much kindness or that anything in particular had come back—at least, not that I could think of. Mainly, I’d been trying to get more sleep and to give virtual hugs to my insecure younger self whenever random memories of old mistakes came to mind.

Then I realized that kindness to oneself is central to Nurturing Thursday, so it was just right after all!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.