I do wonder at my so-called wisdom sometimes. Deciding to regularly visit my allotment, and begin this blog, at the onset of winter. When torrential rain, bitterly cold winds, freezing frost and fog are more common than the warm, soothing sunshine of summer and early autumn.
We've had lots of rain in London over the last few weeks, together with biting winds, and even thick snow. So I haven't been to the allotment for several weeks. I wonder how it's getting along without me? I should have gone, if only to check it over and say 'hi'.
I'm still feeling really good about clearing out my shed. I did some clearing out at home too, and more housework than usual, tackling some jobs that are usually only considered at spring cleaning time.
I had a writing deadline this week, and I wonder if the extra housework was a displacement activity (avoidance in other words). But I'd like to think that my cleaner home will now provide me with a clearer mind for my writing task.
Whilst away from the allotment I thought of the snails again. I'd said about them in my last blog:
"I don't know what it is, I just kind of like them".
Well maybe I like them because sometimes they remind me of me?
Slow and steady.
I am definitely a B-personality. Or rather, a B-perSNAILality-type :-)
As a 'B', I don't like to rush, or panic. I will get up two or three hours earlier than I need to so that I don't have to rush. I can sometimes be the irritating oasis of calm, whilst everyone around me is rushing around like headless chickens. I strongly resist being drawn into the drama and stress of it all.
Needless to say, my kind of Slow can sometimes be fiercely irritating to A-personality-type people.
It seems to me that 'A's cannot easily sit still. They like to be out Doing and tend to rush around in a whirlwind of energy and activity.
I can be like that sometimes too. I can move really fast when I have a deadline to meet. Come to think of it, I seem to function really well around deadlines. Perhaps I ought to set some more for myself?
Over the last few months I've been assessing the wisdom of what I'm putting my energies into. I've been considering which of my many projects, or 'irons in the fire' I should progress further, completely re-vamp or simply, set aside.
It may be time to laser my focus a bit, rather than spreading my energies too thinly in too many areas. I think this is called Honing Your Niche.
It occurred to me that some of my projects remind me of the snails. Some seem to have lost their initial energy and life to some extent.
But there didn't appear to be a great deal of life in many of the snails, and I could have given up on them. But I didn't.
In fact I felt a surge of joy as I noticed one of the snails, with its little head and neck out, eye stalks waving, starting to move, almost jauntily, on its way. For all I know, the others are just hibernating.
So perhaps I should not give up on some of my projects just yet.
Perhaps some are hibernating. Re-gathering their energies. Ready to re-emerge, re-born, and revitalised, in the Spring.
Anyway, I was pleased that at least one snail was still very much alive ... exceptionally pleased in fact.
(If that snail was a project, what would it be?)
Over the winter I shall be looking carefully at all of my projects to see those that are destined to die down completely, and those which might come more alive.
And I know I will be exceptionally pleased when I witness that aliveness.
