Ruts

There are good points to be made for routines and there are just as many good points to be made for being flexible.  I think in the last few years I’m settling down into a pattern of being perfectly happy in a rut.  Normally, anytime anybody would talk about being in a rut it would be from a negative point of view.  So, you’d say you were in a rut and automatically everybody is thinking of suggestions for you to get out of it.  Except, I suddenly realized I’m happy being in a rut.  

What  now?  Well, I suppose I could explore my rut and see why I like it so much.  

There’s work.  That’s pretty much the same day in and day out.  There’s a cyclical quality to the work so there is change within the month, but from one month to the next?  Same stuff.  Pretty much.  That doesn’t bother me.  I do get to be creative every once in awhile when I build a new spread sheet or a data base or something like that.  So, that’s all fine.  I wouldn’t say it was boring, but it is the same.  The only thing I’d like to see different is that I could take more time off.  

Home?  That’s the only other place we’ve got.  Well, home can be divided into three categories.  There are chores which actually don’t take up a whole lot of time.  As I’m aging I also notice that my eyesight is for the birds.  So, I don’t see dirt as well as I did.  Hence, housework is lighter.  I’ve reconciled that well with being a Virgo (I feel) because my husband is a slob and in order to retain happy relations in the family I needed to become a slob too.  I did that years and years ago, so the transition to super slob as my eyesight fades is no big deal.  I’ve even taken to wearing sweaters over top of my blouses to hide the wrinkled backs.  Whatever works.

Relaxation at home.  That’s fine too.  We’ve got cable TV and Netflix.  I’ve got tons of books to read.  I’ve noticed another benefit of aging is that I’ve become forgetful.  So, I can read my favorite books over and over again and there’s an unexpected freshness to each one….because I just can’t remember them the way I used to.

We come now to the crux of my wanting to talk about ruts.  This is where my energy, enthusiasm and creativeness is centering on my websites Talking To Spirit and my blog, The Spirit Moved Me and Look What Happened.  So, if you figure that I’m basically in a rut and, more important, happy in my rut, how am I supposed to go forward with these projects?  I find I am stalled on the book project.  Absolutely stalled.  The blog moves forward of its own volition almost.  The website creeps forward slowly, though I just figured out a way I might improve things there which will be a big project in itself.

Would you like some input from the Spirit World?  Yes, that would be nice.  I can’t seem to talk my way out of a paper bag this morning.  I thought it would help just writing about it all.  Well, it is difficult sometimes to gauge your progress when you are in the middle of the course.  What you might do is one or both of two things.  You could chart your progress on any given project.  For instance, on a calendar devoted to work on your website you could say on the 15th you added substantially to the main page.  Two days later you did work on another page.  The day after that you added 3 links.  This way you would be tracking that particular progressive movement and in looking at your accomplishments you would see the forward movements being made.  Then, you would see you are not in a rut you have just been working on a monumental project that is NOT cyclical in nature as your work is, but is more along the lines of a never ending story.  So, you thought you were in a rut but you really were not.

In one area of my life.  Yes, in one area of your life.  This is where, as you said, most of your creativity is centered these days.  That would make sense.  You allow the other areas of your life to be calm while you walk a thin edge here.  Is that how you see it?  No, it is merely an observation.  I need to read this…you talked too much and I faded out…also, my memory sucks.  Fine, go ahead.

Hey, that really is good advice.  We are here to serve you.  Are you teasing me?  Yes.  I thought so.  Okay…do you think I am a slob or do you think I’ve just got a lot of projects going at once?  The general consensus is that you are a major slob.  Major slob?  Excuse me?  Yes, you channeled that correctly.  It’s been awhile since I laughed while we did this.  We would like to point out that it has been a long time since you invited us to speak in this manner.  Yes, I suppose it has been.  We need to do this more often.  

Okay, I just noticed you said there were two things I could do to improve things…but you didn’t mention the second one.  Yes, you came up for air too soon.  Okay, I’ll dip back down again.

The second thing you could do in order to see the progress being made is to have a system of review in place.  At present you might not read any given page for months on end.  Every weekend, with an eye to seeing how things are on the website you could read a number of your pages.  This way you would also notice if there is something more that you would want to add and the maintenance of the site would truly be attended to.  It would be a measure of control you could put into place that you do not have now.  

Hey, that’s good.  Thanks.  These are good ideas.