With the morning email came posts from Debra Roby and Rayna Gillman on what Debra calls "energy drains." You know: those little things, too small for the to-do list, but always begging to be done first? They lure, distract, call, beckon, insist, wheedle, whine. So you pick up your junk, paw through a pile, make a phone call or turn on the computer "just for a minute" and before you know it, time for dinner. How do such daily experiences take us be surprise, again and again?
Perhaps the seed of contentment is more zen: to find the good in the necessary, while we turn from (acknowledge but not follow) the distraction. We need to spend time with each other, with our moms, friends, in-laws, even the dog - why be here if not some time together? And we need to pick up, sometimes, after each other or ourselves.
We don't need to follow every link on the computer.
This weekend, stumped and maddened by the clutter in my studio, I rooted out a whole bag of precious stuff I "couldn't" use to give away. Out of that detour came a realization, and from that an idea that worked.
In the documentary "Comedian," Jerry Seinfeld says something like "show me someone who says he knows where his ideas come from and I'll show you a liar. Like you KNOW where an idea comes from. Like you had anything to DO with it." I just know that somehow letting go gave birth to a better idea than the one I was beating my head against. So the point was to stop doing what didn't work, take care of the necessary, and be listening when the next idea arrived.
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