Week 3...ish

(I clearly don't have to worry about those extra 4 weeks in this 100 weeks project...they'll be eaten up here and there.)

I think I had better start numbering the "low hanging fruits that could change your (that is, my) life". Good to keep track of 'em. The roundup of previous items (this is the last time I'll do a full one, for now) will take us into this week's Dramatic Trip to the ER.

1. "Never regret, always learn". A touchstone, to which I keep returning..

2. "Eat only food that I enjoy". A small but profound example of making more space for the moment of choice. It helps.

3. "Bed by 11:00 pm". Let's just list this as a laudable goal.

4. "Drink a lot of water...". Been doing better! I abhor warm water but love cold, cold water! It can be found!

5. "Slow down [more] gradually at intersections. [Be careful to stop] before the crosswalk at a stop sign [even if no one is there]. In general, realize the ways [I often feel rushed] when I drive that don't get me there any faster..." Life is too short to do anything but drive safe.

6. "Arrive places early...instead of 'Don't be late!', remember how nice it feels to have two minutes... In general, embrace what there is for me in doing something [different]...instead of what I have to give up..."

So, I am a person who struggles with lateness. A possible combo (in mysterious proportions) of likely ADD (says my doctor), possible passive/aggressiveness against the universe in a diffuse way (as chronic lateness is often said to be), and God knows what else. I hate it, but obviously, as my mom the therapist would say, it serves me in some capacity. We're working on that stuff.

Anyway, speaking of therapy...last week, for the first time probably ever, I was EARLY. I was one minute from my therapist's office, and it was four minutes until my appointment. I was feeling prih-tee self-satisfied...thinking how nice it would feel to sit outside her office and just be for two minutes.

And then my cellphone rang. Those of you who are FB friends of mine are familiar with the bones of this story, but the really barebones version is: b/c of a restaurant error, Shana--who is allergic--had a nut exposure, and after initially subsiding symptoms, had a larger reaction which required use of an Epi-Pen and a four-hour stay in the ER. (She is fine, thank God, and handled it like a trooper.)

What's the learning here? Well, a lot of things--and Pizzeria Uno is going to be learning a thing or two from me--but the low-hanging fruit piece is:

7. Keep your phone charged, and keep chargers close at hand. (Being easily reachable meant that I could turn around immediately and pick-up Shana, who Ben had determined by phone could wait for me instead of calling 911 for an ambulance, and that I could talk to her twice on the way to make sure she was still OK waiting and knew I would be there soon.) Too often, my phone is not charged, making it not so useful for reaching me in an emergency, or for my own use in an emergency.

But since I lost my iPhone--temporarily, I hope; are you out there? (no, there's no point in calling it, it has long since lost its charge, plus I've transferred the service to a loaner)--I've been carrying the small wall charger in my purse with the borrowed phone (thanks, Harvey!), and keeping the iGo adapter in the phone so that I can use it in Ben's car as well as my own.

You know--"for want of a nail..." It's silly to let small *easy* things get in the way of using Helpful Electronic Life Tools.

I decided early on that anything that felt big and overwhelming (or multi-step and murky, or...) or made me feel anxious was not going to "live" on this blog. This is a place for bringing to mind, consolidating, and reflecting on the remarkably large group of things that can improve life and are not very hard to do--*if* we, if I, grab the opportunities for awareness and for small actions that leverage larger living better, living with more ease. So, this is not going to be an ode to disaster preparedness, for example. But it will leave me with an open question: What small things have I not been managing to do, that I really could easily be managing to do, that would make my life better?

(BTW, dear reader--if you're out there--you are warmly invited to offer your own answers to that question--whether in describing past revelations and changes or proposing future ones!)

***

[Wild: After composing and posting this blog post, and mentioning it in my FB status update, I saw that my friend Judy has posted this article

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2009/09/why-might-small-comfortable-changes-work-better-than-radical-steps-.html

by Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project, about why and how "small comfortable changes" can be the most effective. Quel coincidence. Excuse me while I go meditate on that.--SPF]