Today’s questions: are you waiting for spring? Or some changes around the house? Maybe for someone to do something and make you happy?
Nancy White was right: “Leonard Cohen's never gonna bring my groceries in.” If you haven’t heard it, do look up this life lesson condensed in song.
A waiting mentality is often easiest to identify in others. I like to think of myself as independent and self-determined. It’s easy to see others hiding behind various addictions, eating too much, watching too much TV or bitching about what other people aren’t doing for them. This week I caught myself waiting too.
Last spring I put up steel tube framing for a greenhouse in the south garden. I didn’t know what the next step was except to find someone to help me frame a foundation on which to anchor the plastic glazing and secure it. Farmer was too busy and I don’t like to ask him because the man needs a rest.
Every time I passed the empty frame, my heart sank. I didn’t have the skill or knowledge to complete the project and it stood unfinished all winter. If only someone could... I moaned inwardly.
This week I started trolling YouTube for how-to videos on building a greenhouse from scratch. It didn’t take long to locate easy steps that, yes, on a calm day, I could accomplish solo. Leonard Cohen’s getting old. Other people are busy and I’ve got arms and legs. It’s not that hard.
Here’s the world’s cumulative knowledge in electronic form at my fingertips. The real kicker: in how many other ways am I waiting for “Leonard?” This is the paradigm shift opportunity: when I catch myself thinking, “I’d really like to...but...,” I can picture poor, old Leonard, and know it’s okay; I can learn to do this too.
Just this week the turkey pair gifted me with three speckled eggs. Nobody’s keeping them warm, and I would like chicks, so these treasures are in a box under the spare bed until they’re ready for an incubator. Never done this before, but I have internet information and one of Farmer’s Auntie’s to lend wisdom through the process. I’m getting too old for hand holding.
It’s great to learn from others but there’s no limit to what one person can accomplish if she gives up the woe is me solo with determination to help herself.
