Me: Have you uncovered what AF stands for yet?
Agent: That’s the mission, right?
That’s the mission.
The spy who loves me had to set off suddenly for San Francisco.
He wasn’t sure why, he just needed to.
I am familiar with this type of thing. It is how I ended up at the Vicarage. It is also pretty much exactly how I ended up in San Francisco several years ago on my own life-altering escapade. Sometimes the mission just decides that it is time.
You’re going. You hadn’t planned on it and yet now it’s happening. Kind of like how I’m in Michigan this week even though that wasn’t the plan.
That’s the mission. And sometimes you aren’t even really sure why it is the mission, so figuring that part out is also the mission.
Everything you know about the mission and everything you don’t know about the mission makes up the mission. Sometimes the mission knows more about the mission than you do.
And sometimes the typo knows more about the mission than you do.
The spy who loves me posted on FB about his last-minute trip, hoping to connect with a couch.
Except he wrote AF instead of SF.
His fingers changed the mission.
So many options.
Me: Aspiration Fortress? Accidental Fortunes. Adventures Forever. Attitude of Flexibility, which helps if you’re having Adventures Forever! Affluence of Forms. Ascending into Flight. Alliance of Factions. Adoration and Freedom. Acquiring the Fragments. Avatar Fomenting. Analysis of Forgiveness. Accepting (good) Fortune. Attending Fountains. Asking the Flowers. Apples: Fuji. Ampersands Forever.
Agent: Well, I won’t know until I find out. Those do seem like good options though, so keep them coming if you want.
Me: It’s not so much that I want as that I can’t stop. Ascending Fluidly. Aperture to Fondness. Anachronistic Footwear. Approving Fractals (double meaning and just one guy)
Agent: Accelerating Fast…
Me: Adding Flips.
Agent: Accepting Funds.
Me: Acting Funny.
Agent: Advanced Fronds.
Me: Arriving Feet-first.
Agent: Affirmative to that.
Me: Nice. We’ll have to say “affirmative” a lot, because it starts with AF.
Agent: AFFIRMATIVE. Access Fortune.
Me: Affirmative to that. May it be so.
Names help, they just do. And words are magic, they just are.
Code names are incredibly useful. Secret agent code!
A new name can help me circumnavigate whatever Stuff I might have about the thing itself, or possible negative associations hidden inside of the name.
Folding laundry is pretty much never appealing — to me at least.
However, I might get intrigued by Operation Stack X4, which is, ta da, folding laundry. Do not tell the monsters.
And while I definitely don’t want to Write The Stressful Letter To The Horrible Person, I could talk myself into playing with Operation Transform Things Into Treasure.
Maybe folding laundry turns into the door to the letter. Maybe the secret op means the letter is no longer This Awful Stressful Thing Hanging Over My Head, and then the letter turns into a fractal flower, helping me do other things at the same time. So many possibilities.
This is why AF is a great name.
Not just because it contains accidental fortunes (and Accidental Fortunes). It’s also just easier to ask, “What do I know about A.F.?” than it is to deal with monster-questions like “What the hell am I doing here and oh god is this a horrible mistake?”
Sometimes I get stuck on the naming part itself.
This is why typos and auto-correct errors are incredibly helpful for renaming! A few other ways I rename things….
Sounds like or rhymes with…
Nine Days in San Francisco can be Time Ways in the Bam Bam Disco.
Folding laundry can be Bolding Quandary.
Spoonerism.
Sometimes my entire Stist of Luff (list of stuff) looks like this:
Old the Flaundry. Coast Pards. Bake Tath. Ancel Cologne. Pleen the Clayground. Feeve Leedback.Keel with Dastle. Pight the Roast. Chork Banges. Killding Bode. Praking Mogress?
Acronym or acrostic.
S.A.N. Francisco. Solving and Nesting.
Folding The Laundry: Fresh Truth Love.
Anagrams!
San Francisco is also — thank you Anagram Generator — Coins Fans Arc. Or: Can Cars Infos. Or: If Acorn Scans…
Fold laundry is A Fund Lordly. Or: Full On Dryad. Dandy Or Full. Lord Lady Fun!
Compass.
An eight letter word makes a great compass. Then you can have a letter or a word in each direction.
Operation LAUNDERS could stand for Love (north), Access (northeast), Undoing (east), Newness (southeast), Doors (south), Ease (southwest), Resilience (west) and Shelter (northwest).
Secret agent op.
Calling something an operation or a mission automatically makes it more fun, for me.
I might not want to write that letter. Operation L.E.T.T.E.R.S., though….
That could involve a costume. Or a secret identity. I might need to rumba. It could be fun…
Accidental Fortunes.
Names are accidental fortunes.
Typos are accidental fortunes (and accidental names).
Words are play and magic and possibility. Or they can be.
AFFIRMATIVE.
There are things I have to do (or perceive that I have to do), and these are my missions.
There are things I get to do, and these are my missions.
There are things I get to discover, and these are missions too, even though I don’t always know I am on them.
Missions make me pay attention. Names make missions fun, powerful, exciting, full of unexpected discoveries.
Affirmative, affirmative, affirmative.
Let’s play.
We can name ops and missions.
We can rename parts of our day, projects we are working on or preparing ourselves for.
We can decide what AF might be.
We can play.
Follow
Some of my acronyms today:
I left FB today and in this moment don’t ever want to see it again. Too much stuff about other people and the world that I don’t want to be with AT ALL. Also, not people say that some things are NSFW…but much of the internet these days is not safe for ME.
PTSD flare up has been hard. I could go for some metaphor mousing today. Main person involved in the trauma is coming to town and…ugh. Just want to hide under the covers. From that person…and basically everyone else, too.
But at least I have Marley, my adorable kitty. And my HH who I feel so much more at ease with after crying my head off and letting him hug me quietly while I went through it.
So instead of the usual FB…which I am in the process of a separation, I will enjoy:
Fun Babies!
Flavored Balloons!
Factual Ballet!
Fractional Bolivia!
Firsthand Bakeries!
Flopping Boldly! (definitely)
Failing Bravely! (yes, please)
Falling Because (because I can!)
Feasting Berry-style (oh my!)
Floral Baskets (Yes, I need to buy myself some flowers!)
Foxy Biscuits (It’s just one guy…)
Oh! And this one!!
Feeling Better.
Absolutely! I am FB already after making this fun list and declaring my personal independence from things that are NSFM.
Ahhh. Now I can go back to work for a bit.
Thank you, Havi, for being here and sharing. <3
Happy New Year, Havi, and all the Fluent Self-ites!
What a delightful post! Accidental Fortunes and all the missions inside them and around and underneath and inside-out! I’m tripping over missions and colliding with them and it’s never clear which is which and whether up is actually down, and whether the typo and auto-correct are the actual meaning, but it’s all clues and that makes it the mission.
That probably didn’t make any sense, but I shall continue on the mission of exploring the roadblocks that are actually signposts.
May all Accidental Fortunes bring Fortune!
*Such* a well-timed post. Today is final crunch packing day (I say final, but suspect it won’t be) and tomorrow is loading day. Moving is happening, and it is stressful. I am trying to think of inspiring mission names, and have enlisted my family’s help. So far, my favorite is Operation Flying Leap. I’ll keep thinking, while I keep flinging — and keep compassing and conducting too, because they help immeasurably. Onward!
Always
Free
<3 <3 <3
Also, I am deep in a research mission about being a Hush Puppy, which arose from the acronym HSS-HSP (hsshsp –> hushpup –> hush puppy) and that’s hilarious because puppies are often boisterous and bouncy and love being with people but hush puppies need to balance that with some hush! Geddit?? Hahaha, Operation Hush Puppy. Hehehe…. hilair.
Anaconda Flying. (that could be cool!)
While compiling “Creative Year in Review ~ 2013”, realized my theme for 2013 must’ve been “Be Visible”. And for 2014, it needs to be “Be Bold”. I am already facing the prospect of an Unpleasant Letter to Someone I Don’t Like, Take Two.
But if I think of it as a fractal flower / mission, that might help.
I’ve never just found myself going someplace far away “just because”, but that sounds … marvelous.
Abundant Flowers! Apple Fritters. Ample Fulfillment. All Flasks Are Full. Amazing Future.
And I am After Flying.
Woah – I just tuned into your blog and I feel like it’s in another language! This post is outrageous and I love it! 🙂 thanks. what a cool, creative idea.
Thank you! Hi! 🙂
Update! Not only are things Accidentally Fortuitous As Fuck (AF + AF!), but I just realized that of course AF is Adrenal Fatigue. And I’m also told it’s American Fork, a big climbing destination.
AF!!!!