Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A Varied Day is a Good Day; a Good Day is a Varied Day

This was going to be titled "Advice from my father" but in fact it wasn't really advice. It's just something he told me about how he lives his own life that resonated with me very much and continues to. It is just this:

A while ago, he told me that every day, he tries to do all of these things:
- practice his 'cello
- get some exercise
- work on a current project (sometimes it's a translation, sometimes it's research on a biblical topic or a Greek or Hebrew word)
- do personal Bible study

(Daddy, I think I have the last two right).

The point is, there are very different pieces to the day and it matters to get them all in.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful hourlong walk with my two Weight Watcher buddies, then a very good Weight Watcher meeting (suffused in the rosy glow of my having weighed in at 1.3 kilos less than the previous week). I also worked in my office on the current editorial project (813 pages I have to get done in 7 weeks) for about maybe 4 or 5 hours total? (half an hour before Weight Watchers, two hours between Weight Watchers and Felix coming home from school, two more hours in the late afternoon)

I also ran some errands while walking home from Weight Watchers, and went into very different kinds of stores and saw and talked to different people there. I had a nice time at home with Felix in the middle of the day when he came home from school. In the evening we had a neighbor/friend/colleague of hubby's here for a couple of hours whom we like very much - it was nice to have him though I felt a little stressed for time.

Then we got the apartment a little ready for mother-in-law (coming tonight). Some online Scrabble, some chatting in front of the TV which was showing things about the Third Reich [my sudden thought: what other country has anything like this, a time period in the history which so completely dominates and overshadows every other time period ever - hubby pointed out maybe Civil War in the U.S. and that certainly goes in the direction but not, absolutely not, to this degree] - and off to bed.

One thing I really wanted to do yesterday but didn't was practice the guitar.

One thing I really ought to have done yesterday but didn't (didn't want to, but should have): look at bills due, pay them, pay my estimated taxes that were due April 15th . . .

Still, a varied day, and therefore a good day, and thank you, Daddy!

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