Sitting

Sitting
And this moment is my path

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Patience: A Reflection on the First Month of 2012


January 2012 was a time for gaining patience and building a little resilience.

So, in looking back at the goals I've set I've learned a few things. Here's the report.

Big Life Stuff
I have reduced my email inbox from nearly 3000 emails (most spam and unread) to 66 (5 unread). I've also set a few minutes aside each day to throw things away at work. And I donated about 20 items of clothing to Goodwill. So a little progress has been made with my effort to simplify.

Food & Fitness
Camping trip is getting planned...

I've lost 5 lbs and doing pretty well on the eating plan thanks to Lose It.

I've increased my intake of fresh vegetables and low-starch vegetables, but I continue to have wine with dinner...so that particular objective is kind of a wash. More work to do there.

Green tea: check (thanks, Jeff!). And the effort to eat more Omega-3 is going well (you can easily find it in a lot of foods if you just look).

I could drink more milk; gotta work on that one. And thanks to Mark H., I'm doing a little bit of strength training throughout the week.

Running is good! Jeff and I got in 94 miles in January, just 6 miles short of our 100-miles-per-month goal (I slowed us down due to a couple of health/injury problems--more on those in a future blogpost). I'm set to run two 5Ks this month. The Advantage Health Heart & Sole 5K and Dash Down Division.

No progress on the destination run...maybe Boone, NC.

Thinking & Writing
A couple of ideas for a manuscript, but no words on paper yet.

I am much more organized at work, but then again, there's always room for improvement with that one--the nature of my work requires me to be planful and spontaneous...so there are days when I swim upstream.

And I haven't read a thing in January...but the books are chosen and sitting on the table.


Being Present
I have been much more mindful of spending and have made some progress on that one. That's a long, steep hill, but I'll climb it!

Other objectives in this category need some work, too.

Patience: A bit of summary.
I'm indebted to Michael Lewin's blog for this excerpt:

Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ, once wrote movingly about a chrysalis that he came across nestled in an olive tree. The infant butterfly, within its cocoon, was just starting to break through to greet a new life when Kazantzakis, anxious to shorten the natural process, breathed intensely on it. The butterfly eventually emerged, but because it was prematurely induced, its wings were insufficiently formed. Unable to take flight, the butterfly soon died. This intervention, in nature’s slow, unfolding of a life, gave Kazantzakis a stirring lesson to reflect upon. If he had let nature take its own course, if he had been more mindful and patient, the small butterfly would have felt the expression of life through its wings, but because Kazantzakis impatiently intervened in a process that he did not fully understand, he had unintentionally denied this butterfly a life.

Setting goals is a step--an important one, but merely a step. I, nor anyone can be the end product over night. Be kind to yourself...don't hurry the process. Stay the course.