You know, I didn't even realize it- it snuck right up on me, but it's been just over a year now that I've been posting these blogs! I say that with excitement, imagining hardly anyone reads this blog, as of right now... heck, there's still a lot of features I want to implement on this website but just have nowhere near enough time to tackle right now... but that's a rant for my own personal self.
No, this week has more interesting things to talk about. For example, there was the incident in which our fridge started crying this week. Yeah, I guess something got blocked up and it just went on dripping water, which was noticed running down the routes between the tiles in our kitchen. Thankfully, it appears a 48 hour hiatus has helped it to revive... we'll see how true that holds, but so far, it looks good. But boy was it a challenge finding place to keep all our refrigeratables.
Besides home maintenance issues, I helped erect a shed at my in-laws this week. The amusing thing about it was that about mid-spring of this year, we spent a few hours of a Saturday building the base of it, and then took a long break... by which I mean, and you might well guess, was about 6 months. Here we were, now, in mid-fall actually building the shed portion of the shed. Surprisingly, however, although it took more time than building the base, it was, in a way, less difficult. Don't get me wrong, it had it's challenges! But at the end of the day (literally, in this case), we got it built and got everything put away by nightfall.
Thinking back on the project, I'm still intrigued at the idea that it took us a whole day just to build the base (mind you, I mean the base, not the floor- that was surprisingly easy, mostly), while it took us what seemed like an equal amount of time to build the actual floor, frame, roof, shelf, etc. I know I'm not alone when I say this, but on occasion, I have flashbacks to random things I said or did YEARS ago, and this memory now evokes the time in my Junior High years when I chose a quote by Abraham Lincoln... and I don't even remember what it was for, but I used the quote in something, and it was the one that talks about how if he had to chop down a tree in eight hours, he would spend six sharpening his axe.
I chose that quote back then, because it seemed like sagely advice and a good sound moral. And I still think it is. But the funny thing is, I feel like in my own life, it's probably the one I've abided by the least. I mean, if you had to summarize the most notable stories of my life, whether good or bad, it would be occasions in which I probably had way more than ample time to prepare for something, but procrastinated, which either led to a miraculous victory, or a smashing defeat. And here I am, still years later, often finding it hard to want to approach a big task, because I'm afraid I'll fail to follow Lincoln's proverb.
But the more I think it over, maybe it's a little silly to fear fear (I guess I've got presidential quotes on the brain?). In fact, it's not unlike another thing I accomplished this week, which was continuing the edit of a concert recording I took months ago. While there are some excuses for me still working on it in this late season, there's no denying that probably half of my reason was because I would wake up, decide I would use that afternoon/evening to do more audio editing, and then when the time came, pull a Jonah and run away from my mission in lieu of leisure time. And why? Because the day was harder than I expected. Because I just remembered I had to cook up lunches for the week. Because there was a more pressing task that needed doing. Reasons, reasons, reasons. But did I end up doing any of these? ...sometimes. But usually, no.
I guess I relate this story because sometimes it helps to know you're not alone in this same weakness. You wake up smiling, ready to take on the world, and then by afternoon, you feel like just giving up and calling it a day. And my answer to that is not definite. Sometimes, I believe we need a day away from troubles. Maybe running away from responsibility is okay every now and then. Heck, maybe it's even healthy, I don't know. But try not to let yourself go in the process. There's a reason it's so easy to run away, and that's because it's human nature to avoid things that require effort. But it's the things that require effort that REALLY pay off. And usually, like me, you might come to realize that, while a task does require some effort, it turns out to be much less effort than your brain was telling you it was going to be.
Once again, I've gone on longer than I had intended to go on about a point, but I hope these thoughts help someone who may be thinking that they are a complete failure for avoiding responsibilities that have been piling up for too long. Long story short? It happens- and quite often, for better or for worse. But don't let your mind fool you into thinking that there's no point in starting on it today, because there probably is! And remember that some of the most formidable and gargantuan walls can be easily overcome- not with a large battering ram or great brute strength, but by continuous and repeated small chiseling away. If you are unfamiliar with the short story/fable "One Grain of Rice", it might well be worth a quick read.
Until next week, see ya!