Anything worth doing is worth doing...badly

Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. Yep, that's my new affirmation. When my inner perfectionist comes up with some admonishment regarding what I'm doing, I just say my affirmation.

This might not work for everyone. I remember a story by my tennis coach, Scott Draper, about 20 years ago. He said that often people will hear something like "people need to keep their racket face open" so they do that. Well, if their racket face is already open, then that won't improve their game at all. It will probably make it worse. The advice about an open racket face is for people whose racket face is closed, eh?

However, if you are someone like me with lots of projects (someone Coach Barbara Sher calls a scanner) then this could do you some real good. Expecting gold stars on everything is crazy making. Doing some activities "badly" leaves you enough time to do them all. Bingo!

Or perhaps you are a One* on the Enneagram, often called The Perfectionist. Try my motto.

*I believe myself to be a Nine with a strong One wing, but I'm a mere dabbler in the Enneagram world. I read several books on the subject, but the one I found most helpful was full of cute cartoons: The Enneagram Made Easy by Elizabeth Wagele. I notice I'm feeling ashamed of this admission. Quick: Anything worth doing is worth doing badly!

Guest blogger: My mom!

Dear Sharry. I like your new blog.

I would like to add a few thoughts that I have at age 90.
Don't live in the past or look too far into your future.
Do not dwell on what you could do in the past that you can no longer do.
Do what you can do and realize how blessed you are.
Try to keep up with changes in the world.
Realize that change will come and try to adjust to change.
Dealing with loss is another MUST!
Look out beyond self and try to do something for someone else.
I am sure there are many more truths but these are a few I have found to be helpful.

Love Mother

Some notes on this SoulCollage card. The photos are of my mother, of course. In the bottom left she is pregnant with me. One of her son-in-laws dubbed her the Texas Tornado, but in my experience her energy produced much more beauty than mayhem.
Return to Home page or visit SoulCollage talkabout for more SoulCollage cards

Train saga

Dear Eli,

This morning I was sitting in my offic, meditating. I heard what sounded like a train crash! When I went outside I found that the train that runs near our house had malfunctioned. The noise I heard was the train backing up so it wouldn't block Walker St. All the middle school kids have to cross Walker St. to get to school! However, now it was blocking Normal Ave.

I went over there with my camera because this was a particularly interesting train--many open cars. I'm adding photos so you can see what it was like. I wish you had been here with me. We could have crawled under or explored by climbing through. One woman climbed over the couplings to get back home.

There is a warm wind blowing this morning. Around here we call it a Chinook wind.

Love,

Gramma Sharry

Train stalled on Normal Ave.
Train mural

Climbing back home



Windows

Balance

I just returned from a week at the Santa Sabina Center in San Rafael, California. What a beautiful place. It was a nunnery located at the edge of Dominican University. The Sisters now live elsewhere and allow groups to hold conferences, retreats, seminars, and performances at the Center. I was attending the first session of a three year course, the Embodied Life Mentorship Program led by Russell Delman. Twenty-seven of us met to deepen meditation, body awareness, inner inquiry, and interpersonal communication.

I felt tipsy most of the week. When I lay down for an ATM (awareness through movement) lesson, the world seemed to swing wildly east and west. Ditto on standing. Some days I felt off-balance even while strolling through the gardens or sketching in the basement art rooms. As I sat in meditation our last evening (nowhere close to bliss, mostly struggling not to fall off my chair as I nodded off) I felt a clear "click" of understanding. My whole life is out of balance.

A few days before heading off to Santa Sabina, a friend sent me an interesting youtube clip called Did You Know? ? It suggests some of the reasons so many of us are speeding along the information highway with too few stops. For me this looks like: checking e-mail every 30 seconds, knowing more about China than my neighbor and getting computer chair back strain. I'm retired for heaven's sake. I create my own schedule.

So how to restore balance? How to maintain balance? For starters I'm going to revisit Santa Sabina virtually. The slide show is located just below this post.

Santa Sabina Photo Album

See the complete album HERE on Slide.com