on the right road
in journal
one of the ways i measure how my life is going is by how much i’m learning. all babies are born curious (clearly!), and this was definitely a trait encouraged in me by my parents. my dad’s first job after marriage was door-to-door salesperson for encyclopedia brittanica, which kinda says it all.
so, since i’ve been disgracefully neglecting this little site of mine, however good my reasons are (oh and they are very good), i’ll just synopsize the last year: i’ve been learning a TON. this curiosity bug in me is not going away, no matter how tough or busy life gets.
~ a short list* ~
~ birth & all the choices that go along with it
~ caring for a newborn
~ post-partum care
~ time-management as a parent
~ climate change basics
~ e-book creation & organization
~ living abroad when you don’t speak the language
~ writing & genre analysis
~ further exploration of cooking, esp. cooking at high altitude (not easy!)
~ breastfeeding & general baby nutrient options
~ lots of bad movies and some very good ones
~ lots of ok books and some very good ones
~ here-and-there spurts of keeping up with world news and politics
~ fairy tale and folklore research, with a little bit started in
bolivian folktales (which is too too cool)
~ house design & layout
~ permaculture & gardening plans
~ living in the city without a car or washing machine & with a baby (oh and bad wiring and iffy lighting)
~ stretching/yoga/pilates/etc (i can still touch my toes!)
lordy, it’s starting to feel like i’m trying to explain away a x-year gap on my resume so i’ll stop. the point is, and this is directed to you andrea!, is that though there are a lot of the obvious markers missing that i used to use to gauge life, myself, and so on (job, school, etc), i’m doing a lot.
…the most important being making sure this baby of ours has a strong beginning in life. i’ve felt very strongly for a long time now that beginnings count so very much and i’m determined this little one has a good of a chance as i, as her mother, can give her.
still, it’s reassuring to look at the list – which sparks a dozen other memories of smaller little triumphs of learning (i strung up some peppers to dry today, last week i hemmed her pajamas after cutting off the footsies since she’s getting so darn big, i’ve researched wikipedia up the wazoo, i’m up to date on my goodreads reading challenge for 2012, my books-to-read list is always getting longer, etc etc.) – and realize i’m not so different than i was two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, and more. there’s change, sure, and thank goodness! (generally. ha!) but the road i’ve been on is still the right one and hasn’t deviated all that much in all these years. ::brow slightly unwrinkles. and a happy sigh::
see, this is why i write here. happy wednesday ~
- (off the top of my head, so sure to forget much & remember mostly recent stuff. also, nothing was learned in its entirety of course, but that doesn’t interest me much anyhow. and a lot of these things aren’t done daily or even weekly, but often enough they make the list. balance shmalance. or rather, i’m taking a long-term approach to that idea. like life-long. anyhow, enough caveats? ha again.
)
