String of Pearls
The roof needs to be patched up, the yurt is waiting to be raised, the chicken run is a sloshy mess, the culvert under the stream needs clearing. Low patches on the farm are now lakes. Our access road is grunting with potholes. Grunting is not the right word but at least it fits my morning mood.
Why even try when each of those projects simply gets me back to starting point again? And this bed is wonderfully warm. Yes, the road will be passable without swerving around the potholes. Yes, the chickens will have dry claws. But it is warm in here. I am not moving. Not today. No rescuing the chickens from their swampy pit. No gravel trips to fill them ruts, no gutter mending. My inner sloth sinks deeper. Warm in here.
I watched ‘Stutz’ by Jonah Hill, again, this time with notepad. If you too don’t have an employer to manage your day, or perhaps it is the week you are not on breakfast duty for the kids, you may find this useful. When those kinds of extraneous forces do not save me from myself and I am hiding in the darkness, Stutz now comes to the rescue. It worked from the first time I tried it. The sloth in me is happy too. He feels the kindness. You will see what I mean.
Visualize a string of pearls. Or if you prefer, a rosary. I am going with the pearl necklace. And each of them is the same size and carries the same value as the next. Now consider that each pearls is an action. Still there? Lets look at the action pearl that I am stringing up right now. I am writing this blog. Something I have delayed for weeks. But just opening the laptop and silencing the phone was the pearl I threaded and it lead me to this full stop, now. And this next one. And ...My previous pearl on this necklace of action is from this morning. Getting out of bed was not happening until I got another pearl ready, took a humongous step, and simply put my feet in my slippers. That was as challenging an action and carries the same value as this blog in terms of my forward motion. The effort it took to exit my bed this morning was as daunting as the effort to settle down and write my Ode to Stutz.
Now, the clam divers among us will know, there is also a blemish in each pearl. Of course there is. At least a few grains of sand. And likewise, this blog could be more engaging, my morning slippers feat could have been swifter. But the blemish in the pearl reminds us that perfection is the enemy of action. Just string another pearl and another. So good.
So, I have not yet tackled my full grumble-grumble list, but my string of pearls is always there to pull me from the pit, and yes, there are days when brushing my teeth is as difficult as splitting rounds, as effortful as rekindling my coaching business, as daunting as patching up the roof.
