Sixty-Fifth Birthday Saturday Morning Pages Freewrite

Instead of doing my "Morning Pages" in my Scribe this morning, I am going to do my writing on my blog. I have missed doing this, but the physical act of writing (even if it is on a digital tablet) has been good for me. Kim took me out for my birthday yesterday, and her handwriting is so nice. I think mine has gone downhill.

Yesterday, it was helpful to write. Then later I did a freewrite, and it was even more helpful. Since I have been doing "freewrites" on here for ages. (I am not sure when I did it on this blog for the first time. I will look after I am done with this.) The difference between a freewrite and "Morning Pages" is only that Julia Cameron recommends that you do SIX notebook-sized pages, and that takes 30 to 40 minutes, whereas a freewrite is only supposed to be 15. So, I will do about 30 minutes. I think I want to go to the 4:30 am Centering Prayer time in the Wisdom Chapel of the Meditation Chapel people. 

So, yes, it is my birthday today. I am 65 years old. How did that happen? Even though I am now "officially" on Medicare, one of our waiters on our trip said, "You are the 'minors' on this trip!" Meaning that we were young and active: going on hikes during our times in port. I think we were one of the more active people. There was another couple where the woman would run around the boat numerous times. It had a sign that said that 4.5 times around was one mile, and I swear, she ran by me at least 20 times. Her husband walked. But other than that, I don't think anyone was as active as George and I. We had so much fun! Our favorite adventure was going on "George Island" in Killarney to hike about 5 miles on their trail. I called it the "beautiful, buggy, bouldery, boggy, and blueberry walk" because we went into the mud up to mid-calf. It was a hard but rewarding hike with beauty all around us, and we got hungry but brought no food. So, we ate the wild blueberries along the way. A glorious time! (And who could resist an island named after my sweet husband, George!)

So, today is my birthday, and I have nothing planned other than going to the HP picnic for a bit. Then, we are having people over for dinner at about 6 pm. Just a small gathering of people with K, T, M, J, M, and George. Our kids are both working, and we will just sit out on the deck and talk and maybe play the Hygge game? That is all there is planned.

Today, I don't seem to be as stressed as I was yesterday about all the planning. I think I have a better idea about how to manage the groups. I can put the 19th Annotation people into the late morning, or early afternoon my time while they are sometime in the afternoon. My other group cannot meet at that time because it would be the middle of the night for our person in Southeast Asia. Once I realized that, I was a lot less stressed. 

I will find time in between for all the directees that I am leading. I have less one on ones than usual, but I have many, and I just added one more - mainly because she is already in the 19th annotation group and also wanted one-on-one time. So, that is a good overlap. 

I tried putting all my videos into one video like I did for the C2C, and I don't think I am using the same software. It was so much easier last time, but I cannot remember what I used. So, I gave up. I have 1 hour and 17 minutes of video and would love to get it down to less than an hour, but it was becoming so laborious on this one software that I gave up. So, I must find what I used! 

I will do the still pictures instead today. I have had fun looking at our adventures. I don't put as much time into pictures as I once did. Too much sitting afterward to edit them! I can't sit that long, but I could just go to my stand-up, treadmill desk. Maybe I will do that because I love photography.

So, today is a relaxing day for me. I will clean up the deck. I will rehang the picture that fell. I will drink triple chai tea in celebration of being 65 today!

TTFN! 

Friday Freewrite Fifteen

The great news for today: The Timer App has come back to my Apple Watch. About two years ago, I accidentally deleted it, and it would not come back. Apparently, it was a glitch. Well, they must have fixed it because I went to ask my phone to set my timer for 15 minutes when my watch said, "You don't have the timer app installed." Then I said install, and it was the one I deleted two years ago!

So, I have my freewrite timer installed today. That is good after a sort of stressful morning. Maybe that need for CLOSURE needs to be put back in its box?

Ok, maybe I need to quit obsessing over how I am going to schedule 30 people over five different groups and 15 time zones? Last year was different, I didn't have to schedule the supervision group until January. So, I had already started the Sustainable Faith training and 2HC Campfire. It was also much easier to schedule Campfire last year because we were all together in one place, it was the end of August and not the end of July with only a little break between the last one and this one. 

On top of all that, I have a 19th Annotation group to schedule. The good news is that they are all in the Central time zone! So, I am thinking I can schedule them for the afternoon.

More good news is that the Renovare group all wants to come back at the same time.

Bad news, I am hoping I don't have to teach on Mondays at OSU. I would really love to know if I am or not. 

So, I think I will schedule the Central Time Zone people in the early afternoon their time and 11 am my time on a Tuesday or Thursday on the 1st and 3rd weeks of the month.

See, it is all a balancing act, and it is like a jigsaw puzzle. Leading the groups is not going to be an issue because I have done it before, and I love that they are small and easy to manage.

Also, the 19th annotation group is really great. 

Renovare books this year are really good books: Worth Celebrating, Celebration of Discipline, a book by Rick Villoides (sp?), and one by Caussade. All books I am excited about. That should be easier to lead, especially Celebration since I have already led a group in this before.

Can I just say that I am happy I did not ... now I forget what just came into my mind. It will come back to me. 

So, I am good. I am waiting to hear back from one of the people I am doing a sponsorship interview with for the OMS. 

So, it all starts again next week, but in the meantime, I am celebrating my birthday! Starting with Kim in about an hour. 

That should be really good. And I have an appointment with Dr. Myers to remedy this back thing. It has not totally gone back in, but I have managed it really well. I thought prolotherapy put all these days behind me, but maybe it is still my "thorn in the flesh." Those 11 months were glorious though. So good. Nate has helped with his towel on my sacrum trick.

So, I am happy that I am all ready for the 19th in terms of content. I am also ready for the OMS retreat in terms of content. They have never asked me to do anything, but I see I am on the schedule to coordinate the content (they are pretty disorganized with everything they do on the USA side).

All that to say, I am so excited about this 19th. All eager. All "with it" people. The 2HC as well. So, it looks to be a fulfilling time.

I also think all my directees are "on board" these days. 

Just a jigsaw puzzle of scheduling that should get better when all the people pieces come together.