Because it’s Friday AGAIN. And because traditions are important. In which I cover the good stuff and the hard stuff in my week, trying for the non-preachy, non-annoying side of self-reflection.
And you get to join in if you feel like it.
So it’s Friday morning and my duck and I are in Austin right now, probably drinking tea with Pace & Kyeli or at my yoga retreat thing.
But actually not because it’s really only Thursday.
Man, I love pre-posting.
And if that weren’t enough … it’s a mini-chicken because I’m retreating…
But yeah, Friday. It’s tradition. Here we go.
The hard stuff
Busy mouse.
This week was kind of crazed. Traveling. The Kitchen Table. Teaching. Stuff.
I am so so so ready for this yoga retreat thing, you have no idea.
The Kitchen Table.
It is big and it is beautiful and it is a new space to navigate.
I’m tired and overwhelmed like everyone else … and at the same time I’m feeling really joyful about this space and all the amazing things happening in it.
I think the birthing analogy still holds. I am going to need some rest and recovery from the work of creating this place, and also some time to be with it and LOVE IT UP.
But right now I think I’m dealing with birthing pains and post-partum madness.
HSP moments.
So I’m totally a Highly Sensitive Person, as we all know.
But sometimes it makes it really hard to concentrate. I found myself slipping a lot this week while teaching, which is especially annoying.
Double especially because I taught four classes this week.
A little noise. My gentleman friend playing the ukulele. Whatever. I just completely lose my train of thought and get off balance.
And the frustration …. is sooooooo frustrating. I know that was completely redundant and I also know that this is just part of being me, but sometimes I wish that I could just not lose my equilibrium so easily.
Passport photos.
My gentleman friend and I went to get passport photos this week.
And that triggered all kinds of gunk.
I’ve moved countries three times in my life. And I don’t mean traveling. No, I mean packing up and/or disowning your entire life and leaving everything you know.
Three times.
And to me, getting passport photos is the thing that happens right before your entire world falls apart.
Yay, personal associations.
So once I got that sorted, it cleared up a big chunk of dread. But it was still hard.
The good stuff
My beautiful baby. I mean, The Kitchen Table.
Wow.
I feel so much love and affection for every single one of these madcap people who play with me and Selma there. People are having phenomenal breakthroughs, making discoveries, asking good questions.
Getting to be there and observe all of these interactions and shifts and changes … it’s just really powerful and really moving.
Totally worth all the hard parts, because really, it’s just the coolest thing that ever was and I love it so much.
I’m not annoying!
I LOVED this post from Reading Is Sexy where she basically just talks about how great I am.
My favorite line is “She is not annoying.”
I’m so going to make that my new tagline. I’d even trademark it, except for the fact that yeah, that would be annoying. Which would kind of ruin the whole thing.
Still, is that not the sweetest thing ever?
Ez lives here! Still! No, still!
Eventually I’m going to have to stop announcing this each week because I’ll get used to it, but having my brother living with us is just so, so perfect.
I LOVE HIM!
Plus, he makes my gentleman friend laugh. Which is my favorite sound in the entire world.
My gentleman friend.
Is my hero.
This week he pretty much forced me to take care of myself despite all my efforts to keep going.
He took on some of my work. He made me hot water bottles and sent me to bed to nap.
He did acupressure magic on me when I was cranky, and made food when I was hungry and stroked my hair when I was sad.
I don’t think I’ll ever stop being in awe of this whole love thing. It knocks me over.
That’s it for me …
And yes yes yes, of course you can join in my Friday ritual right here in the comments bit if you feel like it.
Yeah? Anything hard and/or good happen in your week?
And, as always, have a glorrrrrrrrrrrrious weekend. And a happy week to come.
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Oh man, the ukulele. That’d mess with anyone’s concentration. At least it’s not an accordion.
Just kidding, I like all kinds of music. Almost all kinds. But sometimes my daughter plays the piano, which is right beneath my office. And I have to get up and walk around before I can ignore it.
But she’s such a good musician, I’m never going to ask her to stop playing. She’s playing in the All-State orchestra in March and I’m such a proud papa.
Okay, done bragging.
Jons last blog post..Plot Two Time Series With Different Dates
It’s hard having this inability to filter out noise isn’t it? My partner and I both have it so our house is very peaceful and quiet mostly. Except he plays the guitar and sings, quite beautifully, and when he does I have to stop and listen. Mostly that’s great but when there’s stuff I need to do – not so great. But I love him, so I guess if he needs to sing it’s probably time to take a break and listen.
BTW I found myself telling him the other day we needed to ‘biggify’ our business ideas. As he doesn’t read your blog this led to a very strange look 🙂 but when I explained he did agree yay!
I’m with you on the noise. The Neverending Construction Site(TM) next door brought in some kind of really awesome new machine yesterday that seems to be trying to drill through what has now become permafrost after nearly a month of below-freezing temperatures. Noise *and* vibration, all day yesterday and today. Yay!
And, weird coincidence: passport picture/application is on my to-do list this afternoon.
The hard:
– Um, the noise.
– Constant nose-to-grindstone-ness all week to meet a deadline.
– The hardness of all that work, and trying to juggle it with real life.
The good:
– Meeting the deadline and the fact that THE BOOK IS DONE!
– Acquiring a promising new client.
– A relatively clear weekend ahead and a light week next week so I can spend some time in the studio and work on some of the ideas floating around in my head.
Enjoy your well-deserved retreat, Havi.
Lori Paximadiss last blog post..Cleveland Handmade featured artist:Cindy Benson
Here’s to retreating!
My good:
– Feeling great at the start of the week.
– Getting two podcasts recorded rather than one – although that was accidental.
– Everybody being generally groovy and a lot of stuff being cleared up from my head and heart.
-My grandmother is getting better (much to her personal chagrin) and is being taken shopping by my parents. In related news, mother has finished another course of Crohn’s meds.
My hard:
– The Anniversary.
– Spending the last couple of days so shattered I’ve spent most of the day and the whole of the night sleeping. Seriously. Everything is so exhausting!
– Sometimes I would like to be able to take a holiday from myself.
P.S. So envious at the having fun with Pace & Kyeli bit. They rock!
Joely Blacks last blog post..Processing out loud: Being ‘good enough’
The hard
– losing computer access on Monday and feeling totally, completely, insanely lost and helpless and alone.
– panicking over losing computer access and then realizing the panic was really grief and it had been trying to get my attention for more than a week and had to with another matter entirely
– blech dealing with an old worn out and tired emotion, that I’ve been avoiding for at least a week (probably longer but who wants to admit that :P)
The good
– getting the very first post up on a new blog without computer access at home – check it out http://sharing.spiritualchocolates.com (I didn’t write it, I’m the none too technical-geek behind the scenes)
– realizing the structure and systems I’ve been telling myself I have, don’t really exist outside my mind
– meditating for five minutes – almost everyday to quiet my mind and create a consistent and redundant habit
Enjoy the retreat Havi & Selma. Take care of yourselves.
Minervas last blog post..How Fear Spreads | Thursday Thinker
Please don’t ever stop posting about how wonderful/amazing/fantastic/perfect it is that your brother lives with you. I would almost give my left arm to have my brother live with me. I miss (and love) him so.
Every time I read about how happy your living arrangement is with him, it gives me warm thoughts as I think about how it would be if my brother lived with me. It makes my insides smile something fierce.
Oh, man, it frightens me how easily my focus is disturbed these days. Except when I’m in crazy laser mode, in which case a grizzly bear could run around the room and I might not notice. But that aside, yes, incredibly frustrating.
It sounds like a Very Good Thing that you’re going on retreat. I hope it’s delicious and refreshing and other adjectives that might suit some kind of marvellous cool fruit-juicey type thing.
Incidentally, I’m now picturing your brother as an incarnation of things wonderful. I know nothing about him but his name and that he’s funny, and yet I already have a little crush on him.
The good and the hard.
The hard:
-Everything has been on hold while we’ve been putting The Comfort Cafe together (it launches this weekend, all being well – maybe even tonight), and there are a million things wanting my attention and not getting it. It will be lovely to have time to do things like blog, and reply to email, and begin the Kitchen Table thing properly.
– I’m quite astonishingly sleep deprived.
– Last weekend was a tango festival, and festivals always bring out tons of issues for me around various forms of social anxiety and overwhelm, perfectionism and performance anxiety, yada yada yada; plus someone on Sunday night said something small that upset me quite badly.
The good:
-working on The Comfort Cafe has been an absolute joy. A joy. Never had I had such a delightful, playful, loving web job. Jen and Dave are teh roxor. I worked twice as hard for the sheer love of it.
– I spent last weekend in rare and precious workshops and milongas with my hero tanguera and her current partner, and came away feeling utterly transformed.
Kates last blog post..The Dance
The hard:
Putting an offer on a new house/farm with conditions and then doing all the thinking and running around to deal with the conditions. Why do appraisers always think it is worth less than we offered even though we offered less than the asking?
Learning new things about business and then NOT KNOWING what the heck I really need and what I don’t. Feeling like I’m in some kind of soupy fog about where it is going.
Driving in a snowstorm at rush hour during a transit strike. Nothing crazy but SLOW.
The good:
Putting an offer on a new house/farm! We took the conditions off. We can still borrow the money we need. The inspection was great. We are going to do the thing!
Making a decision about getting a booth at the fair for the business (tip: Naomi’s advice is “always get a booth at the fair” then evaluate whether it is worth doing again).
Writing a good draft of an e-book.
Writing a good draft of an About page.
Have a great brainstormy session of products to offer.
My 11-year old telling me that she is happy for me to be working more and thus ignoring her more. And said 11-year old mostly just getting on with her own stuff. (and asking me “how was your day” at bedtime)
That’s it. Have fun retreating and having tea with P&K.
JoVEs last blog post..Camnesia
The first part hard and good – my mother went home on Thursday after nearly 3 weeks in the hospital with pneumonia (good part). Today I talked with her and it’s going to take a while to get better and I want to be there to help my parents through it and instead of on the other side of the ocean (hard part is bad-son feelings).
Hard part was no energy, but good part – I figured out why I was resisting things and decided to accept them instead, making life a whole lot lighter.
Hard part – struggling with a pitch letter for a novel for a contest. Good part, got it nailed (eventually).
Really good part, got my first newsletter out after taking a 2.5 year hiatus from delivering them.
There was other junk, but I’ll leave it there…
Happy new week everyone!
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndromes last blog post..The choice of too much