Most of you who know me know that I manage my anxiety with over-preparation. It is as if I think I can plan my way out of impending doom. Clearly, planning and preparation is a good thing. Clearly, it is good to take appropriate action to be ready for possible emergencies or disasters. However, life teaches us that, no matter how much planning and preparation we do, emergencies and disasters will still happen. Life also teaches us that, sometimes, those emergencies and disasters are not as catastrophic as we fear in the grand scheme of things. All that planning and preparation can build them up in our minds to a more ferocious level than they merit.
I get all that. These philosophical musings notwithstanding, I still tend to plan for every conceivable eventuality before I ever embark on a project. Before I launched this blog, I pre-wrote about twenty posts to make sure that I would have new content each week. This was my safety net against being torpedoed by crippling writer’s block. Ever since that time, I have always had at least three articles written in advance waiting to be posted. I mean, the idea of a Wednesday looming ahead of me with nothing ready to post… appalling and unacceptable! Or that I might miss a Wednesday… that would be even more devastating. Heaven forbid that I should get up one Wednesday morning and just write something!
Well, that day I have feared since I launched the blog nearly five years ago has arrived. Last Wednesday, I posted Extraordinary Personship (http://www.terrilabonte.com/2020/07/extraordinary-personship/). This was the last pre-written piece I had stored in my hopper. And you know what? Nothing very bad has happened.
It is not that I have run out of ideas for blog posts. I have four or five snippets of ideas running around in my brain. It is just that they are all muddled around up there in the attic- tangled and twisted and tentacled into a big mess. I need to sort them out and get them to behave. Some of them have found their path and are running headlong down the way to completion. My typing is just not as quick as my brain. Other kernels of ideas are flying around in my head, desperately looking for a point on which to land. Then there are some that are dithering about, dancing and jumping and making merry with no intention of settling down long enough to make any point at all. Ideas can be like that. They all have their own energy, their own path, and their own schedule. They cannot be rushed. I have decided that I should just slow down and enjoy the show. It is kind of fun to embrace the muddle.
It may take me a few weeks to unravel the mess in my mind. Ultimately, I am confident that the blog posts will get written and I will be satisfied with the evolution of the idea nuggets that are currently muddled in my brain. Please have patience and bear with me.
I think you will understand. After all, we all get a little muddled sometimes!
Does your mind ever get muddled? What do you to sort things out? Please share your perspective by leaving a comment. In the alternative, you can send me an email at terrirretirement@gmail.com.
Have a moment of clarity today!!
Terri/Dorry 😊
PS Please do not forget about my book, Random (A)Musings. If you have not ordered your very own copy, please visit Amazon to become one of the many, many (well, 40) people who are the owners of this wacky journey into my brain. I would really appreciate it.