Friday, March 4, 2011

Do One Thing That Scares You Every Day

Yesterday the fire department came to school to introduce the kids to the ladder truck.   This is a huge fire truck with a ladder that  extends a  full 155 feet .  You'll never guess who climbed to the top of the extended ladder!  No clamp, no helmet -= just nerve - I actually wanted to do it because I am not comfortable with heights.... I wanted to do something that scared me.  I wanted to challenge myself in a new way.  Let me tell you, it was a challenge.  About one quarter of the way up I started to freak out.  This was particularly understandable since, before I started the ascent, the fireman was telling me about someone else who had done this who had frozen up - couldn't go up, couldn't go down - they had to "rescue" him!  I was doing fine until I got that little speech -- anyway, I started to freak out a bit but then I told myself:  breathe, don't look behind, don't look forward, just look straight ahead, and go one rung at a time.  Ignore the crowd. Listen to yourself.  I got into a rhythm and stayed focused on the climbing.  It worked!  Good advice for life, heh?  

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Solitude

I'm thinking about going invisible.  Or, put it another way, I'm thinking about disappearing.  Not in a bad way but in a private, fuck the world sort of way.  Drop the Facebook page, drop the blog, stop following the news, go inside, avoid people except at work.   On the active side, read as an escape, ride the bike, take walks, write for myself and myself only, paint.  Sounds like what I need to do.
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