Saturday, June 14, 2008

Barely Three


I made myself a deal. If it's at least 4 a.m., I'll get up and write. I rolled out of bed and downstairs to look at the library clock above my mantle. Not.even.close. Barely three. I went back to bed for a few minutes, but I knew I was done sleeping. I'm tired of breaking my promises to myself, I was thinking. I keep my promises to everyone else in sight (mostly), but when it comes to myself, I totally lie. For instance:

1. I promise to lose all of this weight when I have this baby. ("Baby" is now four-years old. Weight's not gone.)
2. I promise that I'll live and work abroad by the time I'm thirty. (I'm thirty four, and sometimes, on my lucky days, I get to drive out of state.)
3. I promise that I'll become a published author, and I'll throw little parties in which other writers and artists-types will smoke clove cigarettes and sip things out of clinky-iced glasses, and talk about lofty ideals in ideal lofts.

So I'm up at three in the morning, and the funniest thing happened. I wrote. And wrote. And made a pot of coffee. And then meditated for an hour. (And at this point was discovered by my bleary-eyed husband at six a.m., at which time he asked me "What are you doing?") And then I wrote. And then took the dogs for a walk. And wrote more.

Could it be that I'm going to start to think about making good on my own promises again? And what spurred this sudden gust of personal wind-of-change? It was this, over at Anahata Katkin's blog. I read it right before bed, and I was still thinking about it when I woke up at 3 a.m. I want to be one of those people who actually does these kinds of things, and doesn't just sit around thinking to myself how great it would be if I did. I want to remind myself (because I think I might have lost this little insight somewhere along the way) that I deserve joy. I deserve to live in that place where joy resides and not just visit from time to time. That's it. Good morning. No, really. GOOD.MORNING.


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3 Things not left unsaid:

Anonymous said...

You are not 34.

Southern Girl said...

By golly, you're right. You would catch that. (: I must have been REALLY tired to tack on another whole YEAR. (:

Jacqui G said...

Oh my Heavens - how did you get into my head????
This is EXACTLY where I am - wallowing in a life, apparently brimming with contentment, and yet, under the surface lurk the simmering resentments of unfulfilled dreams.
I, too, keep a promise to another - Any other! - with more fervour and determination than I keep the smallest promise to myself. Why do I feel I have to be "all things to all men" and yet not to me?
When did I make them more important than my own life, soul, wishes?
This has GOT to change!
Gandhi said "be the change you wish to see in the world"
I am starting Now ....
Southern Girl Goddess - NOTHING will get in the way of our Thursday morning tea date!
Jacqui