Nice To Know

Be like Katie... just chill...

I read this on Jen Lemen's blog today:

You don’t have to work so hard at this. You don’t have to do so much. You don’t have to endeavor to be natural, normal, and good. It happens by itself when you least expect it. If you are confused about what you should be doing, try this. Stop what you are doing. Take care of what is in front of you, when it is in front of you, and the confusion will pass. This is called the effort of no effort. No effort is what powers the universe.

I know everybody else out there has got it all together (right, everybody?) but sometimes it's a good reminder for Virgo-types like me to just take a sec and stop it all already. Quit worrying about what's supposed to be, and just be right there in whatever it is that's happening. That's not always so fun. But it seems to get the job done better than fussing around worrying.

Speaking of, today is a beautiful day. Slept in with Terri and the girls (until Cleo started to go crazy from starvation). Puttered around and then went to the library. I loooove the library. I had a hard time finding a book today, but in the end I got a pirate book (I can't wait to try it out) and a collection of Annie Proulx stories. I usually don't like short stories at all, but I think I'll like these. I started to read Sometimes A Great Notion, and it seems great, but I just wasn't in the mood. So I returned it. I'll try again later. Right now I'm in the middle of re-reading Little Women and I can't wait to write about it!

After the library we went to Peet's for more tea, and then wandered around a little, enjoying the sun. Quick stop at the grocery store (Terri stayed in the car and directed my shopping over the phone...) and then home to make garlic-herb bread in the bread machine for dinner tonight, have some rooibos tea (mmmm) and read as much Physiology as I can stand before diving back into my other books (the fun ones). I also have some beading to do, but I think I'll do that tomorrow after I get my studying done. Terri and the cats are resting. It's hard being a cat, apparently.

I have realized something about my reading habits: the reason why I haven't been reading as much in the past few years was, basically, scarcity-thinking. As in, because I was a silly and got out of the habit of going to the library, I never had anything good to read because I'm too cheap to buy books. Also, if you've noticed the pace at which I read books, it just wasn't worth it. $15 for two days of reading? That gets expensive really fast. So whenever I had something good to read, I hoarded it and doled it out. Or I went to the thrift store and got the fattest, most boring books I could find, for in the meantime. I filled in with magazines and non-fiction (we have a lot of that around here).

But now! The library! Has changed! My! Life! I can get as many books as I can carry and then be all luxurious about choosing which one to read first. I can even stop after a few pages and decide not to read it at all, because, after all, I can always go get another one. Suddenly my book addiction has no reason to be curbed. I am in bookworm heaven. I do need to make some extensive lists, however -- to take with me to the library so I know I have some things to search out. Otherwise I start to wander and get too picky.

Anyway. Books make me happy. So I'd better get to studying so I can feed that addiction some more. I also have to go on a 2-mile run, which I'll do as soon as the sun starts to go down. Oh, I am so busy. I just can't stand it.