Randomness

You know how you have those 'ah-ha' moments in the damnedest places at the craziest times? I was sitting at my kitchen table, this morning, and realized 2 things:

1. I've always got a bazillion things going at once so that nothing gets my full attention at any one time
2. I spend more time cooking for my dogs than myself

Yes. Its true. Not sure what that means. The good news is, it won't last more than a few seconds in my head before I move onto something else, so no need to ponder. (Just joking -- those of you who have ever read anything know that I'm a ponderer extraordinaire! I ponder and ponder and ruminate and pick-apart and dissect and analyze -- well, you get the point.)

My bazillion things this morning included:
-making food for my dogs (the 2 large dogs eat a combination of chicken livers and gizzards, brown rice, and green beans; the small dog eats a combination of chicken dark meat, oatmeal, and green peas) -- so I had 2 huge pots on my stove going at once: 1 cooking chicken dark meat on the bone that I'll pick in a while and put back in the pot after adding the oats and beans to cook in it; 1 cooking ground rice and minced green beans which will need the chopped gizzards and livers added after cooking....I blew up my immersion blender, yesterday, so all chopping is to be done by hand...bleck!
-writing my morning pages (this is a form of 'stream of thought' writing that I got after doing Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" program, based on her book of the same name. Get it! Its great!)
-checking Facebook and responding to the notifications on my personal page, as well as two group pages that I run and one more that I participate in
-updating my cell phone applications (no, this doesn't take much effort other than a few clicks, but it was happening)
-texting three friends about plans for the week/weekend
-drinking coffee
-checking my Ebay items listed for sale
-purchasing organic beeswax from my favorite seller of it on Ebay
-reviewing the shipping info on a dress I ordered on Ebay from India
-looking at my stats on my new Etsy store and pondering what I could do to increase traffic
-inviting people to Etsy to try to get free listings for both of us if I thought they might be interested
-posting Etsy updates to Facebook for possibly increased traffic
-brainstorming new products for Etsy listings after looking at the list I generated, yesterday, of the potential ideas -- reassessing those ideas
-planning my class for this evening at work in order to best maintain student engagement, covering the material necessary, and using the time efficiently
-making a list of things to do for the day (read my news on Twitter, check Pinterest, update my blogs, etc.)
-started to check Twitter, but thought better of it for the moment (added it to my list of things to do)
.....
I could go on, but you get the point (and, have likely lost interest by now)...
.....
And, I make dog food for my lovies at least twice a week. Its nice when I can make both kinds at once, so that its only two days a week. Sometimes, it ends up being more like four days because of the way it runs out. Due to current financial issues, I always make extra and freeze it -- just in case there's a week where I don't have the money to buy the supplies. In the past, it wouldn't have occurred to me to put away for a rainy day...funny how age impacts that little factor.

At any rate, the greater thought was this:

Am I really living the mindfulness approach that I believe is the best for me?
Do I really want to let go of my ability to multi-task and utilize my multi-linear thinking? (I have to admit, I'm a little proud of these.)
How will I know unless...

GASP

I actually try it.

Dreadful! Gasp! Gasp! Do I really want to commit to that?

But, the short answer is, of course, YES. How will I know if the mindful approach will improve my life unless I give it the full attempt. I think that I used to actually live that way. I'm not sure how the clutter invaded my head, again, but it most certainly has. And, the streams of thoughts are going a million miles a second, again.

I guess I need a tune-up. So, bear with me if I don't respond right away. I'll be actually trying to do one thing at a time for a while. When I'm fully engaged in something, it must improve the results. Right?

well, I'll let you know....