This morning’s walk was a snowshoe with Luna on the lake. It was a blustery morning. The overnight winds had filled in a lot of the hard-earned snowshoe trails we had built yesterday. Luna got a bit of snow caught in one of her paws, as she does occasionally. So I cleaned off her paw and set off again. Except Luna wasn’t keen on walking further. Building habits with friends is so much better than going at it alone. But what do you do when your best friend wants to sit one out? As I continued to trudge along, Luna was sitting, resolutely refusing to continue on the walk with me. And so, I kept going. Because I am trying to keep at re-establishing my morning walk habit. Whether Luna wants to join me to help make it easier for me or not. The good news is that she eventually joined me, for which I rewarded her with a treat, of course.

And remember, if one best friend wants to sit one out, you always have your very best friend, your future self, right along beside you, cheering your present self on. That future self is the one who feels so great after you’ve executed on that thing you made a promise to that future self to do.

And we finished our morning trudge through the snow together; the three of us: me, Luna and my future self.

And a trudge it was. Even though you may think you have executed a habit so many times that you you can do it without thinking, that it usually takes you almost no effort. There will be forces of nature that will bury that well-paved habit path with a bunch of snow or some other form of resistance will appear out of no where, and you’ll feel like you’re back near the beginning of building up that habit. And you’ll do it anyway.

Last week’s re-introduced habit was early morning sunlight. This week’s habit is moving more. And so, after our snowshoe on the lake, I had to spend a bit of time remembering how to access the ‘one and done’ workout series that I bought for about $30 back in November when I was out visiting Shelli. During that week we did one of the 10-12 minute workouts together. And it felt great. Sadly, shortly after I got back home and was trying to keep up the habit of doing those workouts daily, I stopped. Totally stopped. So here I am again, re-establishing that habit. This morning, instead of Shelli, it was my future self beside me cheering me on. And it felt great.

Before I went outside today I marvelled at the beauty and fragility of some icicles that had built up at the front of the cottage where melting snow flows over the eavestroughs. The building up of those icicles is a bit like the building up of a habit. The icicles are formed one drop of water at a time. Some of the drops stick to build up the icicle. Others of them drop right off and don’t stick. And eventually you have a beautiful, seeminging strong icicle. But the icicle doesn’t stay around forever, it may melt, or it may break off. And the process will start all over again. Some drops sticking and accumulating to build a strong icicle and others dropping right off.

And I ate some veggies and protein for breakfast. Go me!

This evening I worked on making some PDF versions of the instructions for the boxes that I’ll be making tomorrow in the CHMA Arts for All program. Box 113 is sized to hold A2 cards. Box 407 is sized to hold bars of soap that I’ve already bought to include in my Shoeboxes next year. I’ll include some details about those in tomorrow’s post.

Boxes with Brenda: A2-sized Greeting Cards

I’m going to the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Arts for All program on Tuesday afternoon. They are having a session to make some ‘toolboxes’. They’ll be decorating photo boxes to store some mental health tools in. I’ve made some kits that contain the supplies to make a box to hold greeting cards. In my opinion, sending a ‘thinking of you’ card is a great way to pick up your mood, and the mood of the recipient. You can have a look at the blog post below if you’re interested in seeing how the boxes are assembled. The video is on Facebook. I’ll eventually do a new video for this type of box on YouTube; who knows, maybe I have one already. I’ll also update this post with the instructions for making the boxes.

https://www.facebook.com/creativetreatsclub/videos/513457362659346

Chocolate Chip Cookies? Yes, please!

In addition to making some greeting card box kits, I also made a few batches of cookies. The recipe is below. We were without shortening so I tried it with coconut oil. It seemed to work fine. Because they would have a taste of coconut from the oil, I added in some shredded coconut along with the chocolate chips. They turned out pretty well. I also baked some of our trusty Quaker oatmeal cookies from a mix. So simple. So good. You just add 1/4 cup water for 1/2 bag of mix. And chocolate chips of course. We brought them to a neighbour’s for dessert since they invited us for a delicious pasta dinner.

Morning Musings: Savour the Season

There was a lot of fresh snow this morning as I headed out for my walk with Luna. About 8:30. Later than I would like, but it was still getting some early morning sunlight into my eyes, which helps to reset my circadean rhythm, which helps me to sleep better. I know that a consistent wake-up time and a consistent bed-time also help me sleep better but somehow those habits seem tougher to develop than seeking some early morning sunlight.

But back to the snow. I was thinking the theme for the day could be ‘snow’, which I happen to love. Which led me to realizing that I should savour the snow while it is here, because winter actually doesn’t really last that long. And, every winter we don’t always have a lot of snow, or snow conditions that are condusive to getting out to ski, or skate or snowshoe which are activities that all go a long way to help us savour the snow.

Which of course let me to realizing we should simply savour the season. The season that we are in. And not be pining for the season we wish we were in. For a season in the past, or for a season in the future. Whether we are currently living in our ‘preferred’ season or one we ‘hate’, whether it is the winter or the summer, whether it is a winter with great weather and great snow conditions or a winter of poor weather and lousy snow conditions. We can simply choose to savour the season.

And so I set about to savour my morning walk with Luna. In order to savour something it helps if you are more present with, more mindful of what you are doing. Whether it is being more present with your senses, or just mindful of where your thoughts are taking you.

And so I savoured the crunch of the snow under my boots. I savoured the snow gently falling on my face. I savoured the fresh, crisp scent of a morning amongst the trees. I savoured the sight of Luna burying herself in the snow, rolling about and making snow angels. I savoured the sound of Luna’s tags jingling as she shook off some snow. I savoured this silliness of making my own snow angel.

I chose to savour the trudge up the hill instead of lamenting about how I wished I was in better shape. I pondered whether it was a better season in my life when I was in better shape – back when I it didn’t feel so difficult to get up the hill. And I realized that it wasn’t. The best thing about being in better shape is not being in better shape. The best thing about being in better shape is spending the time doing all the things that lead to being in better shape. And savouring the time that you are doing those activities.

None of us have an infinite amount of time or energy. But we do have an infinite number of things we can do, an infinite number of ways in which we can choose to spend our time and energy. And we can choose how present we are when we are as we live our lives.

I’m trying to spend more time and energy doing activities that will get me into better shape. And I’m trying to savour the time that I’m doing those activites. And to savour the time that I spend doing other activities. I’m trying to simply savour the season. The season that I’m in.

I realize that not everyone loves the snow, that not everyone loves the winter. That not everyone loves the current season of live that they are in. But I believe we can all try to better simply savour the season that we are in.

I am much more of a starter than a finisher. You would not believe the number of partially finished projects I have. On my walk with Luna this morning I had some musings about how I can get more things finished.

Yesterday’s Headspace episode was about letting some things go so you can pursue things that will bring you joy, that will energize you. I definitely have some partially finished projects that I should (and will?) let go of. And, I have some projects that I do want to finish.

The project that I wanted to finish today is the version 2.0 of my mom’s word search puzzle. At mom’s Celebration of Life, many people kindly added to the list of words that come to mind when they think of mom: aunt, proud, devoted, flawless, Blue Light, lemon, squares, $20.00 (I’ll put it in as twentydollars), Roland, David, kind eyes, spark plug, trooper, inspiring, fun, energetic, spirited, purple, antiques, gardenias, family, Buckshot, Gagnon, Lapasse and yuri (we’ll give mom the last word!).

And I finished. You can find the new versions linked below. I’ll also add them to her Celebration of Life post.

A few days ago on Radio Headspace Mel Robbins described her ‘high five’ habit that she recommends. I have heard her speak of it before and I have occasionally tried to develop the habit in the past. I’ll give it another try. But what to say as I look myself in the eye in the mirror and give myself a high five each time I brush my teeth. But what should I say that I can always believe? Great job? You did your best? Nailed it?

I think perfection is overrated. The idea of aiming for a B+ effort resonates more strongly with me than always giving everything our best effort. Or I want it to resonate more strongly with me. Because I don’t think we can (or should) give everything we do our best effort. We need to give some things less than our best effort. So that we have some time and energy left for other things we want to do. And to spend time with the people that are important to us.

For example, if you’re competing in a triathlon – you can’t give the swim your best effort if you want to optimize your bike and run times. You need to save some of your effort and energy during the swimming leg to have enough for the other cycling and running legs of the race. You need to give the swim the best effort. But what is the best effort for that swim?

Remember that the last 20% takes 80% of the effort. Is all that extra effort in the swim leg of your race, to say nothing of all that time focused on swim training before the race , worth giving the swim leg of your race your best effort. Instead of an A+ effort, sometimes (or often?) a B- or a C+ effort is the most appropriate effort, the best effort. It’s a good enough effort. And you’ll have a better race overall.

As I was approaching 60 years old, one of the phrases I used was Seeking 60. Yes, I was seeking to do 60 things 60 times. Just because. I am choosing to believe I nailed it. I definitely didn’t actually acheive that goal. I’ll have to go back to see how close I was to acheiving it. Maybe I reached 60%. But I believe I gave it the best effort. Because that is exactly the effort I gave it. No more, no less. It wasn’t necessarily my best effort, but it was the most appropriate, and therefore the best effort for that goal at that time in my life. While I was keen to do 60 things 60 times, I wasn’t willing to focus all of my attention and time to that goal. I wanted to have some time and energy for other things that came up that I wanted to do. I was giving myself a chance to practice giving a 60% effort, to realize and begin to believe that, most often, a 60% effort is the best effort. That year I became more comfortable with giving things the right amount of effort: the best effort; not my best effort.

Try not to give things too much time and energy. You might get burned out or develop an injury. Rather than experiencing progress, you’ll have a setback that may even prevent you from reaching your goal. Much like the grilled cheese that I was trying to cook in a rush at lunch: too much energy and time resulted in burnt toast.

A short update on my Try It Tuesday post: I didn’t get my Thursday morning swim in yesterday. The city had closed their recreational facilities for the morning due to a big snow storm. This is a good example of the value of building some flexibility into your schedule, of having some wiggle room, some flexibility.

Fortunately there was a lane swimming session on Friday mornings as well. So F and I met at Brewer pool this morning rather than Thursday morning. And it was great. I didn’t push myself to swim a distance or at a pace that I used to be able to do. I just took it easy. And I remember how much I loved swimming. Especially with a friend. Especially when the sunlight streamed in through the windows and made the water glisten and the bright light danced and reflected up off the bottom of the pool. I’m looking foward to swim number 2 next week.

Are you making any progress on any of your Try It list? Give it the best effort. You’ll be glad that you did.