Gratitude #5: Steps

I'm trying to be mindful of my stepping this month.  Ideally, I would like to step 10,000 times each day.  Yesterday I got up to 9733 and decided that was enough.  It was 9pm and I had finished grading papers while watching the finale of Flea Bag and basically I was fatigued.

Grateful that my job keeps me moving  quite a bit all day long so I can get near to 10,000 steps without engaging in specific exercise events.

Gratitude #4: The Sankalpa Resources

I went in to Thirdland today and pulled out so many materials. Then I strew them hither thither and yon. The room looks like a bomb hit it. I just left strewn materials on every table so that tomorrow morning can be more chaotic than usual.  Good move, Heffernan!

Ordered some books for support with my sankalpa.  Older, Wiser, Fiercer.  Body Kindness.  Body Respect.  Now that they're here, they don't really look all that fascinating, but I'm grateful that people wrote these books and that they're right here in my house so I can look at them from time to time and perhaps become more body positive during 2020.  Speaking of body positivity, if I were you I'd skip Brittany Runs a Marathon on Prime.  So dumb.

Did I tell you I'm doing Dry January?  I'm not sure why I'm doing it.  Not enjoying it that much to tell you the truth.  Still, I'm committed to the whole 31 days of dryness.  You know me. The sky's the limit when my heart is in it. I'm very grateful to all the funny people tweeting about #dryjanuary. Reading the tweets is a good distraction at the end of the day.

Gratitude #3: The Lichens

Last night I talked to some travelers who have climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and have wandered through the Alps. As they hiked through the Alps, they saw cows and heard their bells ringing.  

Another traveler texted today that she was "halfway to Cleveland," which sounds like a good title for a song or poem.  

Husbandman and I are sticking close to home, but we gratefully traipsed through Latimer Woods and logged in over .4 miles. Grey and muddy, but the lichens offered a pop to the wintry woods, shining their bright oranges and minty greens.  

We may venture out again at some point.  It's wet outside, and the crows are causing quite a stir.

Gratitude #2: The Search Continues.

I'm in a little coffee shop.  This place is usually so quiet and calm, but today there are many Chatty Cathies in here.  There are two young men having an earnest discussion at the next table.  First guy shared his great love for his girlfriend. When he gets his tax return this year, they will get married.  He can not imagine life without her.  The other guy shared that he is probably going to break up with his girlfriend soon because she was high when he introduced her to his parents recently.  That really bothered him.

As for me, I've played around with a few sankalpa today.  Haven't yet landed on the one yet.  I want the sankalpa to focus on the physical this year.  I want to remember to appreciate having a body that can move around and get stuff done.  I don't think I've appreciated this body of mine enough. I need to have an attitude of gratitude for this collection of cells that gets me through the day.  Before long, I'll be sitting around in a recliner all day, waiting for someone I barely know to help me into my wheelchair. My sankalpa might be, Thanks, Body or I might snazz it up a bit.

Gratitude #1: Sankalpa Search

Spent some time looking over 2019 with my blog and my notebook.  Some notes about the year:

I made a C25K goal and I did in fact run a 5K with my siblings, but sadly the slogging tapered off soon thereafter.  I made another goal to get something written, and I do have an article, written with pals, out there in SubmissionLand, hoping to be published in 2020. Cross your fingers for us, please.

 I blogged 145 times, up from the past 3 years, but nowhere near my 2005 record of 315 blog entries. Reading over my 2019 entries was a bit ho hum.  I wrote a few amusing entries, but not that many.  I wrote a lot about Thirdland, and I did enjoy reading about some of the projects we worked on in Room 200, but I want to do more creative writing next year.  Maybe I do.  Not sure, actually.

 We saw 61 movies, 31 of them on the big screen.  (Favorites:  Tell Me Who I Am, Give Me Liberty, Honeyland, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Raft, Echo in the Canyon, Yesterday). Definitely want to see more movies in 2020.

My sankalpa of 2019 was kind of a bust.  It had to do with thinking on each day as an adventure.  Really didn't work out since most days I recited my sankalpa in the morning and then followed it up with "Well, I guess."

So it's time for trying out a new Sankalpa for 2020.  I really liked my 2018 Sankalpa which was "I'm a magician lady."  That really brought a smile to my face every day. Do you remember that it came from the title of a painting?  So, I may need to rip something off from the world of the Creatives for 2020. I've a few in mind that I'll noodle around with this month here.  We'll all probably enjoy that quite a bit.

The gratitude challenge is a good idea for the beginning of the year.  Thanks, MM.  I've got a lot of stuff to be grateful for, so why not give those things a shout out here on alittleleeway and start the year with some jubilation?

The Final Day of the Decade

We're back from our sojourn to New Orleans, Louisiana and McDonough, Georgia.  In New Orleans, we visited the Ogden Museum of Southern Art where we flipped over the art of William Christenberry.  On our drive to Georgia, we stopped in Montgomery, Alabama to see the extraordinarily powerful National Memorial for Peace and Justice. In Georgia, we all celebrated to see my dad doing so well.  I'm grateful to my siblings who help him every day.  

Our drive home yesterday was relaxed and easy. We listened to the Talking Heads and I read a book by Richard Sullivan aloud to Husbandman. We crossed over rivers and stopped at some of our nation's finest rest areas. We arrived home at dusk and proceeded to lounge around listlessly. I finished Ann Patchett's excellent Commonwealth.  It was the kind of book where I found myself muttering, "Slow it down, slow it down. You're reading too fast," but I couldn't.  I zipped through the second half of that book like there was no tomorrow. Now we're home again, home again, jiggity jig. Husbandman is going to make fondue for dinner. Then we're heading to Comedy Attic. Hoorah.  Happy New Year, my friends. 

The Chips

 I'm down here with my family in McDonough, GA.  It's a crazy old time with family dynamics just running wild hither thither and yon.  I talked to my dad tonight about some genealogy research he had done a few decades ago.  Come to find out, one of my ancestors died at age 71, from "softening of the brain."  It's right there on his death certificate.  Sometime in the year 1886, my ancestor's brain softened, and he died. Another ancestor died of "arsenic poisoning during an episode of temporary insanity." Another ancestor was killed by Native Americans. This is my past, my friends.  I can't escape it.  Bottom line?  Let the chips fall where they may.

The Read In

Yesterday was probably the grandest end of semester day on record.  We had a Read In, with a buffet of breakfast foods --- bagels, yogurts, fruit, juice, cheese.  We read and snacked most of the morning.  Free access to the snacks really helped keep everyone engaged.  One Thirdlander finished 3 books.  Another told me, "I loved the quiet."  I jostled between several books and a New Yorker.  And now we're all on winter break.  Life is good. The moral of this tale is:  More Snacks for All.

The Line

 When I was at the post office this week, there were 30 people in line.  No one was talking except for one person on her cell phone sharing information about some unpleasantries with her ex husband, but all the other people were just standing there quietly and patiently.

No one touched anyone else.  No one cut in front of anyone else.

If I were a postal worker, I'd feel some satisfaction looking out at the silent people waiting in the line. I'd appreciate the calm order that required nothing of me and allowed me to focus on individual transactions in my own time.

My job's quite different.

The Dentists

Today I took the morning off to go to the dentists.  First the periodontist, then the regular dentist.    Both appointments were on time and, hopefully, successful. The injections of novocaine hurt a bit, but not overly so.  The periodontist used a technique that involved wiggling my lip back and forth as he inserted the needle into the gums near my back molar, repeatedly.  I was curious if he had read about that in a journal somewhere, or perhaps made it up on his own. Later, I got the opportunity to look at x-rays of my mouth and could see that the bone graft I had this summer worked out, for the most part.  The periodontist actually thinks I might need an additional gum graft in that area, but that's down the line. On the back burner, so to speak.  His niece is currently studying to be a periodontist. I met her during my appointment and was able to listen in on periodontal knowledge being passed from elder to younger. One of the assistants talked to me about her son, who is procrastinating at school and not earning his prize points.  I encouraged her to go easy on him. Thought about recommending Kohn's Punished By Rewards, but decided against it.  The periodontist took a screw out of my implant and gave it to me to keep in case anything else goes wrong with my tooth in the future.  It's in the junk drawer now.  Let's not forget that.  The morning went well, and included some interesting and unique experiences I'll not soon forget.  Now I'm heading in to the school site to educate the Thirdlanders about measurement again. 

The Kilograms

The Thirdlanders are super excited about the holidays, as evidenced by a bouncy inattentiveness and a pervasive NO CAN DO attitude.  We have four more days together and I'm hellbent on teaching measurement like it's going out of style.  I'm heading in to the compound to hammer out extra-engaging, creative lesson plans on MEASUREMENT like nobody's business.

Yesterday I joined shoppers in our downtown square and bought a few items for dispersal.  In short, gifts.  To get these wrapped and mailed off today should be my Sunday goal. And yet, our youth need to learn how to measure.  And how to line plot.  So a very few of you who probably don't even read this blog won't be getting your gifts on time for the big day.  If our box is late to you, just think of the Thirdlanders in Indiana mastering the essential standards 3.M.1, 3.M.2 and 3.M.3.  You might wonder how all that can be mastered in four days.  Stand back and watch, my friends.  Stand back and watch. And feel joyful.