Today I had more hours to fill with tasks than days of late. My long-term subbing job ended yesterday, which was a good sign for the person I was filling in for during a medical leave. I left feeling that I had done a decent job of keeping the program going and teaching to the best of my ability. A friend called today, later in the afternoon and asked how my first day back at home was going. She wondered if I had been bored and quizzed me, as only a good friend can do, on what I did to fill my time during this particular day. I prattled on about all of the tasks I accomplished, being the extreme accomplisher that I am, but when I got to the part of trimming around the edges of all the coupons I'd clipped in the recent past, she said, "You did what?" We had a good laugh and a few more minutes of chatter before we ended the call. As I returned to the table where I am working on finishing a children's book for the Three Musketeers, I paused to rewind the day's activities in my mind.
True, I had spend almost three hours working on illustrations for the book, but, I asked myself, "What had I done with the rest of my time?" Yes, I did all my exercising. Yes, I read the newspaper. Yes, I composed a blog posting in the morning. Yes my SO and I enjoyed some conversation. But when I came to the part where I had been seated at my desk, tidying up the paperwork that had overspread nearly every inch, and I actually spent time trimming little pieces of paper so they would fit more readily in my wallet, I thought, "You were bored, weren't you?"
I'll admit that the change of routine was most certainly challenging in one way, yet it was refreshing in another. While I have zero artistic ability, creating illustrations for the twenty-page book has been artfully vexing and has kept my concentration at a high level, keeping my mind off other, more pressing matters. Of course, I realize that as the days pass, working back in a classroom will become a distant, fuzzy memory and soon I'll find the rhythm of no rhythm at all.
Being back at home every day is like the ultimate case of A.D.D. where I can flit from task to task, moving from room to room, seeing one thing that needs attending to which will lead to another, which will lead to another........well, you get the picture. Yesterday a friend inquired as to what I'd do with my time and I told her I had no plans.......that the world would be my oyster.
Yes, I know that oysters produce pearls. I just hope that I get that grain of sand planted sooner than later. I do not want to be known as the person with the barren oyster shell. May mine spawn pearl after pearl!
Ancora imparo
