Ten-Finger Exercises

the luxury of wasting time

Have you ever thought about what a luxury it is to have time to waste?

Having spent my entire day waiting for the Sears repairman who did not show up, I should have gotten a lot accomplished, right? I should have read blogs and written this earlier, and even though I was looking forward to it, I didn't get it done.

So, what did I do? Well, I mended some things, and I cleaned off my kitchen counter top of accumulated miscellany. Did a little of the same in several other crannies, none completely so I'd actually have something to show for it. Only I know there are fewer layers of papers and magazines, etc. Oh, and I actually emptied a little cubby in my dresser of its belt collection, discarding some, sending some to the Goodwill box, and tucking a few unusual ones away in my scarf and glove drawer.

My housekeeper, who, until November, came for four hours every other week, has been driving truck (as they say out here.) (Not a truck, just truck.) Her husband has driven one also, and they've been transporting bees. They were gone for several weeks in the summer following the orchard season, and now, of all times, the hives need to be rotated somewhere else. I'd think south, but she didn't say that, only mentioned the bad weather through Montana.

I made some black bean soup, and started some oatmeal bread but realized that the recipe called for buttermilk. I guess it will wait quietly in its steel bowl, no liquids combined as of yet, just a mound of white and tan pouting on the kitchen counter.

Found some attractive but generic "Happy Holidays" cards, and thought I'd send some to a few friends with a disclaimer that they're inclusive of Valentines Day, St. Patricks, and whatever else comes next. Seems a shame to waste them just because I didn't get them out in time for Christmas. Even if I mailed them today, the twelfth day of Christmas would be over before the cards arrived.

I have a friend who always said that it was good luck to get a card with the magi on it first, before any other cards. I'd sure have the jump on all other cards for 2008. Too bad no one else would have heard of that funny little superstition.

The repairman won't be here now till next Tuesday afternoon. #@$!!*#^! That means I'll have to head to the laundromat this weekend. I didn't get the dog walked or my hair colored either-- two other things I was hoping to get into the day, but couldn't until I heard from Sears, one way or another.

(Phone rang. It was the leader of my Wednesday night spirituality group, wondering why I'd been absent last night. I'd called her and told her I probably wasn't coming back. I guess she didn't get it.)

I decided not to continue with the group, having put in my "trial" ten weeks. The readings were pretty black and white, and arbitrarily so, to my way of thinking. The author of the book matched up various spiritual traditions with various spiritual practices, and the fit seemed artificial for many of them.

I didn't enjoy the method of the group, taking turns reading aloud the assigned chapter, but that will be changing now. The leader emphasized that things would flow much more freely. I almost agreed to give it a try. Darned if I don't have a hard time making decisions and sticking to them too!

What I really went for was the people. Members of other Renovare groups I know have become very close friends, and I wanted that for myself. I couldn't see ever becoming close to four of the six women, and our theologies are so diverse. Yes, it's good to learn from other points of view, etc., but I listen to that every day in a less didactic sense. I want to belong to a group of people who are farther out in their thinking, people who dare to disagree with orthodoxy, not ones who are trying to bond within it.