Monthly Archives: May 2025

Saturday – Changing Habits

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It’s a warm Saturday morning at 23℃. Yikes! It’s 35℃ in the greenhouse. The shade is down, the vents and the door are opened. It’s almost noon. I’ve been a busy beaver with just a small spell of wasteful scrolling. Today it was on Dick York of Bewitched and on how to break bad habits. So it wasn’t all wasteful. Some good came out of it. What caught my eye on breaking bad habits was an article from the Economist. Of course I couldn’t access the whole thing, not being a paid subscriber. Still one sentence saying small rewards and a change of scenery can help. I have to keep that in mind as I tranverse through the merry month of May.

Changing habits can be a good goal for me this month. There’s lots of good tips online besides the ones from the Economist. I will make it easy. I will make it simple. I will give up perfection. Good enough is good enough. It will be my mantra this month. I’ve started May and today on the right foot. I haven’t dropped the ball. Still here, encouraging myself one slow step at a time. I’m not procrastinating as much. This morning I’ve changed the bedding. It’s all washed and hung up to dry. I’ve dust mopped the floor. I’ve cleaned up a small corner in the backyard. Lunch and dishes all done. Good enough for now. Looking forward to an art show later this afternoon. It’s a good reward.

How Time Slips Away

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Isn’t it funny how time just slips away? Here it is after 2 in the afternoon already. There’s still alot of day left and alot of things yet to do. But I feel like crashing. I’m a weather vane. I’m feeling the sudden rise of 22℃ from the cool of yesterday. I’ve already pulled down the shade in the greenhouse in the morning. The vents and the door are opened. And it’s still 30.4℃. I feel limp like the seedlings. They need repotting or planting soon. I will have to find/make time.

Though I know the dangers of scrolling in the morning, I was still drawn in by a catchy headline on the Olsen twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley. What I thought was going to be a short blurb turned into many next, next, next…I never did get to the final next. I managed to curb my scrolling addiction after many minutes and tended to my bread making. That, too, took many minutes but it was a good many-minutes addiction. I ended up with 6 loaves of beautiful golden brown bread. I won’t have to do it again for awhile.

While I was resting from my bread making efforts, I got caught up in a post about the tribute fund for Dr. Sarah Jenkins, who lost the battle with mental health. What is it about such tragic stories that I had to find out all the details? I don’t know her. This is the first time I’ve heard of her. Yet I had to find out everything that I could about her. She was so young, beautiful and vibrant. It was awhile before I could let that go and come back into my own life and day.

My day didn’t totally slip away. I got my 6 loaves of bread made. Making them was harder than going to the gym. It was a better workout, taking up hours of my morning. I had my visit with my father this afternoon. I didn’t do any walking with him. I was tired. It was sunny and hot. He did a little walking with his cane on his own in the backyard. Good enough! I said. I did some watering in the greenhouse. Pulled some weeds in the raised beds. Now I’m finishing up this post. Good enough, I said again.

Keeping the Ball Rolling

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Today is the first day of the merry month of May. It’s a good reason to take up the poem by Thomas Dekker in 1599.

O, the month of May, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!
O, and then did I unto my true love say,
Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my Summer’s Queen.

April was good and gone. I hope to make May the same. This writing space has been a healing place for me. It’s good to return again and again to tap out self encouragement, self analysis and self care. Lately, I’ve been reading a bit of Ordinary Mysticism by Mirabai Starr every morning. It’s a wonderful book full of treasures. It took me awhile to discover that. A passage from the book:

“Twentieth-century Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel said, ‘Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement….to get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”

I certainly learned that the hard way this past year with the passing of my mother, the sudden loss of my hearing and its recovery. My whole world and awareness shifted. I learned not to ask why alot and to accept of what is. Like Mirabai says, I don’t have to have all this shit figured out. “The invitation is to notice what comes and bless what goes. To take refuge in groundlessness and rest in boundlessness.”

I love her words. I love words and the music they can create. It is a restful practice to be here, tapping them out and keeping the ball rolling – even without a challenge.