Managing The Big Rocks

Dear Diary,

Just thought I'd stop in and tell you about my lovely week. It was kind of hectic and, as usual, I was stressing about how in the world to schedule everything that needs to get finished before the end of the semester. There was so much going on in my head that I couldn't focus on anything. After class on Thursday, my friend and practice partner invited me to join her in the lab on Friday morning to practice and then to attend a movie presentation in the afternoon. Drive back up to campus on my day off? Oh, Emma, I can't. But I also knew how much I needed the practice - and so finally, at the end of the day, I agreed to meet her.

I had a great morning. We spent the whole morning signing and even got in a little interpreting practice. The most important thing that happened though, was that I got out of my head for a few hours. It's been a little crazy in there lately! Emma even helped me work out a schedule for getting everything done - and I'm so grateful to her for that. The trick? Focus on one thing at a time.

I guess that's the theme for my week. Remember how I said last week that I just wanted to focus on four things? On walking, not eating wheat, drinking enough water, and taking my vitamins? Well, it's working. Since making that decision, I've walked every day. Even the morning it rained, (Luckily, I didn't realize it was raining until I was already up and dressed and half-way out the door, but by then, I thought, I'm doing this!) I only missed taking vitamins once and drank at least 8 glasses of water every day.  And wait, that's not even the best part. Without even setting the goal, I ate an almost completely vegetarian diet this week. I juiced every morning, ate a raw lunch every day, and had steamed or roasted veggies for dinner every night. Well, except for last night. We went out for dinner and I had a little bit of chicken, which actually made me wish I'd ordered the falafel.

woolly thyme like tumbling water

So, here's what I'm thinking. Do you know the story about putting the big rocks in first? I've often heard it and sometimes even used it to illustrate how we need to schedule the biggest, most important things first and let the little things fill in around the bigger ones. I always tried to make sense of that. I mean, it seems like it should make sense, doesn't it? But something else makes even more sense to me now, and that is to focus on the simple things. Not the minutia that wants to clutter our lives and cloud our thinking, but the simple things that sustain us. Simple things like getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, eating food that sustains us, not clogs us up and weighs us down. Doesn't it make sense that in giving priority to the simple things, like beginning and ending each day with a few quiet moments for ourselves, like taking a walk or laughing with a friend, that we create room for the bigger things to fall into place? I don't know if I want to try and manage those big rocks, or if I prefer just to be the water that flows around them.

That's what happened in my world this week.

Simply,
deborah