Circle of Life

That phrase is used in a lot of ways, but specifically I am referring to the act of making a circle, putting in various aspects and then scoring them.  This exercise is supposed to illustrate where things are lacking and where too much energy is used in other areas.  If I would have done this last year, only four of the 10 areas would have had any percentage of my energy.  Now I can say that some attention is paid to six out of ten, but still the emphasis is on the big four – work, living space, family, finances.  My blogging projects have helped in two areas – creativity and spirituality, mainly creativity which is spiritual.  This leaves health / fitness, fun, friends and relationship sorely lacking.  I’m healthy and have lots of friends, but I guess I take those things for granted and figure some day, when I have time, I’ll put more effort in those areas.  That’s kind of pathetic, when paying attention to them would also help in the fitness, fun and maybe relationship areas. Meanwhile, I forgot to do some important things at work and that’s what I was thinking about when I woke up this morning.

Now

Using my friend’s example at Thanksgiving to remain calm and in the now, I managed to stay there most of yesterday.  There was a short panic trying to get all the food to the table and a few minutes of feeling overwhelmed by the quantity of people in my my place.  It was nice and instead of my usual ‘why do I do this?’ feeling, I knew why and embraced the fact that this is a gift to my friends, a sign of appreciation that they are part of my life and good people who like one another and have a good time, with good food for the holiday.

RSVP

Every year I complain about people not getting back to me with RSVPs. This year 2/3 of the invited have RSVPed before the deadline. Has the financial crisis or the election of Obama turned us into nicer, kinder people? Instead of getting mad because I don’t know who will be here (for food prep), now I’m a little freaking out about how many people will be here. It always works out and it will again this year (right?). I still have Christmas shopping to do, things to be mailed and lots of cooking, baking, cleaning and decorating to do. Trying to remain calm and remember that this is all about love, family and friendships in the midst of the darkness this time of year brings.