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Daily writing prompt
Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive?
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Used to be, when I was being lazy, I hovered between feeling guilty and feeling glorious.

After I retired, it took almost six months before I could sit back and feel at ease with those days when nothing much was ever done or accomplished under my watch. Shortly after I left work – for good, on March 15th, 2017 – All Hail, the Ides of March! – I started keeping a WIAT journal: What I Accomplished Today.

Some days, the only thing I write down is the word nothing while some days there are several entries. Over the years, I’m increasingly just fine with that though truth be told, those nada entries, are pretty rare.

It’s all good. I’m at peace.

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It’s true, I’ve found, what they say about how engaging in new and (hopefully!) positive behavior for a period of roughly thirty days can provide another layer to the texture of what we cherish most about ourselves.

When I retired in 2017, the year I turned sixty, I received a small, red-leather journal. I decided I wanted some form of structure to my new freedom-filled days, an accounting of sorts so I used this journal to record those things I’d accomplished each day. Aside from a brief pause – I decided I’d done so long enough but then I hankered for my nightly tradition of enumerating what had transpired – task wise – throughout the past several daylight hours – I continue to write in my WIAT journal every day.

WIAT: What I Accomplished Today.

Of course, there are some things that are just daily givens such as making my bed, brushing my teeth, showering, etc. Those are not WIAT-worthy expenditures. But laundry, mowing the lawn, baking cookies, making progress and/or completing a quilting project, Gravel Travel / photography, writing a new poem, submitting my poetry to a new journal, going for a walk, riding my bike, performing Garbage Patrol or Poop Patrol (picking up after puppy!) – these are just some of the things I add to my journal.

Some days, very few of them actually, are blank. Sometimes, a person’s day might appear to be a non-event, nothing noteworthy on the accomplishment scale. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good or memorable or pleasant day. When I can spend a few hours in the shade of our twin canopies out front, beneath the branches of our oak and maple trees, reading a good book, with puppy at my feet, I’m not exactly operating in firecracker mode. And that’s okay. So what? I don’t have anything of merit or value to add to my WIAT pages.

Or perhaps I’m sick. Or it’s just too hot to do anything at all. Duly noted as self-required justification for my lack of checking boxes of any kind whatsoever. Still okay.

And so, here we are at the beginning of a new year. I just rejoined Goodreads so I can track the books I read, what I’m reading now, what I’d like to read going forward. (My first account was hacked so I jumped ship. I’ve decided to give it another try!) My 2023 Goal: Read 50 books this year.

Another habit I’ve decided to pursue is that of submitting to 100 poetry journals and publications by the first of April, which just happens to be National Poetry Month.

Last, but certainly not least, I’ve decided to commit to writing one haiku or senryu each day, some of which I may post here on A Sawyer’s Daughter. I was inspired to do so after reading this article. What I write each day might be ‘rough’. They might be spot on. They might even be cringeworthy. But I’m willing to plow through those first 30 days to create yet another self-embracing strategy for the betterment of Julie.

Happy New Year everyone!

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My ‘day’ began at 12:34 AM (count me the odd one as I get a bit of a thrill out of glancing at the clock and seeing numerical sequences or patterns, such as this). After half an hour of wakefulness, I got out of bed, donned my robe and slippers, grabbed my journal, my current read (‘Melmoth’ by Sarah Perry) and an assortment of poetry journals. One of my morning rituals is reading a variety of poems – duly noting them in my journal – and since it was technically “morning”, I began to read and record the poems as I experienced each and every lovely one of them.

My winter solstice was off to an early start indeed, so perhaps my day – this designated shortest day of the year – will feel a little longer than it really is. As I noted in my journal (in the wee hours of the morning), the days begin to lengthen from here on out and that is truly something to celebrate! Especially here in the frigid Midwest with a winter storm bearing down on us right before the holidays.

Two hours later, I was ready to crawl back under the covers. I slept well after that. This is one of the perks of being retired. Can’t sleep at night? No matter. I don’t follow any schedule other than whatever my heart desires these days. I can sleep in, if I want to or need to, although this particular morning I was surprised to be awake, and up & at ’em, about eight o’clock, even after an interrupted night of rest.

So here’s to the Winter Solstice and the return of increasing light in the weeks and months ahead! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all. 🙂

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I’m moving.

This is not a reference to a personal household move replete with boxed up clothing, knick-knacks and photos but rather a work-related relocation. Hmmm. On second thought, I guess there is some of that involved with this work move as well. I’ll need to pack up all of my desk top paraphernalia – trinkets, mugs, calendars, cube-wall hangings, family photos and holiday decorations as well as two cover-ups I keep in my desk to ward off the chilly AC environment many of us women are all too familiar with.

After working for eight years in the same west side facility, my new work digs will be downtown. I’m both excited and apprehensive about this change, due to take place later this week. The commute won’t be as far but we’ll face some certain bottlenecks on our drive into the heart of the metro. Parking shouldn’t be an issue and the skywalk system will provide some nice opportunities for lunch time exercise no matter the weather outside. There will be new people to meet, a different routine and some adjustments to be made. Yin and yang, some good, some bad. I’ll be fine.

To prepare for the move, I’ve started some housekeeping tasks that include, among your basic culling–the-herd chores, getting rid of the Day Timer calendar pages I have inexplicably retained over the years. Scheduled meetings, project notes, to do items, lists of what I had to eat and what I did in the way of physical activity each day are scribbled on most every calendar sheet. Sometimes the pages are blank. And occasionally I used them as form of journaling, vacation planning and daydreaming.

As I read through these entries, laboriously flipping over each and every page, I was reminded of how frustrated I’d been just a few years ago, both with work and with my family – situations that have righted themselves somehow and are no longer as much a source of stress as they once were. Or perhaps I’ve just learned to adjust? Some of my scribblings described my Adventures in Baking: a few failures, several delicious successes. A favorite theme, in my journals throughout the years, is What’s Ahead for the Rest of [insert year here]: an enumeration of weddings, graduations, concerts, parties, family gatherings and vacations complete with dates and locations. It’s somehow gratifying to review these check lists and mentally look forward to similar activities yet to come while looking back, reliving events long past.

Decorating ideas, landscaping and furniture placement diagrams, recipes, quotes, photography and blogging concepts, story lines, financial portfolio tracking as well as mundane (yet necessary) doctor appointment reminders – all this information, about me and my life, woven onto paper with pencil, highlighters and pen. So much to sift through here – I don’t know if I can find the time to get through it all.

It’s both fun and thought-provoking to go back in time, one page at a time, to re-examine the minutiae of my life – both on a personal and on a business level – the tasks, events, ideas, projects and plans that filled my days. I no longer use a DayTimer at work but I still journal, jotting down important (and trivial) thoughts, yearnings and observations as they pop into my head. While I’ve never tossed a journal, the time has come to discard these daily calendar pages much as it pains me to do so. However, it is possible, I suppose, that I might need to look up something that occurred way back on, say, Friday, June 5, 2009. Or I might get to wondering what I was doing on Sunday, February 13, 2011.

It could happen. Maybe I’ll just box them up for later…