This week has been busy for me. I’ve sent out my novella to beta readers, I’ve started a new job, and I have been putting some stuff together behind the scenes for this blog. I’m excited to reveal it to you, and I hoped it would be this week, but it’s not ready yet. Another, interesting and exciting thing happened, and I wanted to share that with you, along with two micro-stories that I had laying around in my notebooks. I hope you enjoy it.
Things to Enjoy Right Now
I have a planner that I use it’s awesome and different from planners that force you to schedule things at certain times. That’s never worked for me but this planner does work, it’s called a Productivity Planner, and you can find buy them from Intelligent Change.
The planner isn’t the important or interesting part of this though. It’s one of the things that I do with them. Every day of the week I have a sticky note that goes over the page hiding the work I have to do for the day. Before I can get to the day’s work, I have to read what’s on the sticky note. Monday I review my goals for the year, Tuesday I read an affirmation about The Other, Wednesday I read about my writing goals, Friday I have a reminder to send out these blogs via email. These sticky notes help keep me on track and are the main reason I reached half of my New Year’s resolutions in 2017. Along with maintaining the habit of writing for an hour every day.
These notes have traveled from journal to journal (I’ve gone through three of them), and I’ve replaced some of the notes over time. The Thursday one finally lost its stickiness after 15 months of use. So I transposed it. Then I truly appreciated it.
On Thursdays, I remind myself of what I need to enjoy right now.
I want to be a well-known author. I want to help others be great authors too. I want to live off of the income I get from writing the things I want to write. I want a lot of stuff I don’t have.
Because I want all these things in the far future, I forget to enjoy the place I am in right now. This sticky note brings me back to the present every week, and I thought I would share with you what I’m enjoying in this phase of my life.
- I do work I want to do
- I am free to pursue things that don’t scale
- I’m not fully committed to a business model yet therefore I can experiment
- I have so much potential
- I Don’t have anyone depending on me as a breadwinner
- I have wonderful people in who support me in my life (That includes you, Reader)
- I have Time and Energy to Improve and Play
The old one is on the left, the new one is on the right. The tasks are behind the notes.
What are a few things you can enjoy in the phase of life you’re in? I know I am usually looking down the path to where I want to be. I want you to take some time today and write down 3 or 4 things that you get to enjoy where you are right now. Maybe even post it somewhere and look at it every once in a while.
The Elusive Squirrel
Shasta crouched behind the bush and waited. She had tried a dozen things, and none of them had worked. This time she would show her master her loyalty. This time she would catch the squirrel.
It was sitting in the tree, shaded from the hot Texas sun. The squirrel was eating a pecan, one of the master’s pecans. Shasta panted as quiet as she could. She waited for the squirrel to come down, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
The squirrel twitched its ears and looked around. Shasta quit panting and stared at the rodent, it was about to move. The woodland creature expended its half eaten pecan and turned to face the trunk. It ran down, and Shasta jumped from behind the bush. She barked, and her wolven ancestors would have been proud, despite her being a 12-pound beagle.
But alas the squirrel heard her from the bushes, and before Shasta got to the base of the tree, it had retreated up. The rodent looked for other places to go. You’re not getting out of this one, Shasta thought. I’ve got you this time. And she was right there was nowhere for it to go.
Then the squirrel went to the edge of the branch where the limb got thinner. Shasta watched the squirrel weigh down the branch. You’re going to fall right into my mouth, she thought. Then the unexpected and unexplainable happened. The squired was walking on top of the great fence.
What is this? Shasta protested with a bark. Then another bark, followed by three more. She ran the length of the yard following the squirrel and barking the entire time trying to scare it or curse it off the fence. She yelped and ran until she met the other great fence. Then the squirrel simply jumped into another yard, onto another tree, and it was out of Shasta’s sight.
“Hush up out there,” the master yelled.
She turned looked at her owner in the doorway of the house. Her heart was beating in her chest, but she didn’t care. She was soon sitting right in front of him. He looked down at her.
“Did you scare off the squirrel?” her master asked.
She stared at what he was doing. He was holding flatware and was eating something that smelled delicious.
“Here,” he said dropping a piece of steak. Shasta caught it in her mouth. It tasted as good as the squirrel probably would have.
The Man Who Lived at the Edge of the World
A Sketch done by Yours Truly
Once a man lived on the edge of the world. He wore a yellow rain jacket and a matching yellow hat because it always rains at the edge of the world. Every day the man looked over the edge and wondered what was beyond. The edge of the world was a lonely place, but the man had a kitty cat that kept him company and the mailman visited him with news about town and packages of canned food. Occasionally, the mailman even brought him actual mail. One day the mailman came with his deliveries, and all he found was man’s yellow hat and a note that said, “Gone to see what’s out there. Feed the cat.”
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