For the past few weeks/months I've been eking away at some projects, step by-step:
--creating an exercise habit. I've been working out 6 days/week since early September. It's not always easy to fit in and I don't always enjoy the effort, but I love how important it's become in my life and how good I'm feeling these days.
--reconnecting with an old favorite activity, canoeing, as I learn how how to paddle outrigger-style. A friend's been taking me out on the Back Bay periodically through the holidays and I've decided to join a team so I can train more intensely and race. I can't believe that I'm nearly 40 and I've just joined up with a new team sport. It's amazing the places this journey of my life takes me.
--getting a spiffy new c-leg because mine's an old out-of-warranty model. I had various fittings over the past 2 months and if all goes well I'll have it in hand (or rather, on foot) Friday morning. This one will have a remote control. I kid you not. And no way am I telling my teenage kids where I'm hiding that little gizmo (no replay of "The Wrong Trousers" happening around here, I say)
--working diligently on my academic projects, including the first final draft of the diphtheria chapter for my dissertation. It's a love/hate thing: love the process of history-making, hate that my intentions are always loftier than what emerges on the page. I love/hate diphtheria, too--love learning about the disease (fascinating stuff, that), hate the sorrow and horror of lives lost to it.
--finding novels again. For awhile I'd given them up, having grown weary of reading (not an unimaginable thing when you realize that I digest 4-10 books/week for my "work"). While in NYC I discovered books all over again. The joy! I've been coming home with a stack of novels from the library each week and am simply devouring them. I allow myself to read in that space of time after the daily work is done and I'm not quite yet ready for sleep. I just finished _The Blind Assassin_ and started _Arrowsmith_ last night.
How about you, what steps have you been taking lately?
1/28/2009
my steps
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3 comments:
wonderful steps :)
here's mine:
trying to get back into reading books again. not sure how it happened, but I don't read like I used to. time to change that.
getting back into art-making. like reading, this has petered out. time to peter it back in.
Sounds great! I'd love to get to the point where I am working out 6 days a week. I'll bet that feels terrific.
For me, I started doing a little prayer journal in the new year. I jot little notes and try to cover lots of things, but I always start out by praying for my husband.
I was cleaning the house last week and peeked at his (open) journal on his nightstand -- and found out he's decided to do the same for me! (did he sneek a peek at my journal? I don't mind!)
I always do my prayer journal first thing in the morning. I sit at the kitchen table with my coffee and spend about ten minutes jotting whatever comes to me. I've missed doing it a handful of times and felt really "off" the rest of the day -- so I think it is a good thing for me to keep doing.
My steps:
Walking more. I really didn't get much in the way of exercise while my mother was ill, and so I'm trying to park farther away, walk rather than drive when I can, and just to generally move more.
Writing more. Aside from my paying gig, I've got a couple of projects that I had to mostly set aside while I was taking care of my mother. I'm actively working on one of those again, and I'm trying to find the time to do some work on the other one as well.
Steps toward going back to school. When my mother first got ill, I had been planning on going to grad school, but with her illness I couldn't do that. Now I am in the process of taking the steps I need to in order to resume my pursuit of that goal.
Oh, and last night I started my first knitting project using circular needles. That's a big step for me, as I've been quite intimidated by the circulars.
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