I read a quote from a writer, I forget who or even the whole quote, but it started, “One must be pitiless in the matter of mood…”
He is right, of course. But it doesn’t really help me right now. I am sitting here with my Tablet (the laptop-come-dining-room-tabletop is dying a slow painful death, as it gets slower and more painful to do anything on it), feeling it would be a good idea to make Saturday’s blog post even at this late hour. Yet I also feel paralyzed by indecision and resistance.
I’m also a little hungry, although I did have some scrambled eggs earlier.
Lately I feel overwhelmed by all I need and want to do, with the vicious circle result that I do not do any of it. Well, sometimes I do some of it. For example, yesterday I worked on paying bills. This is one chore my late husband Steve always did, and I was SO grateful that he did. So naturally, I am not only not very good at it, it is doubly painful, because it emphasizes once again that Steve is not here.
I guess this is another thing to be pitiless about. I keep telling myself I have to learn to be alone. So yesterday I sat down with the checkbook and a stack of bills and told myself, “Just pay one bill.” This was me applying my method of Just Do One Thing. I started by putting the bills in order of due date. I hate to be late (blog posts notwithstanding).
Somewhere in the midst paying one bill online, one by phone, and writing a couple of checks, I felt a surge of… not quite happiness, but of not depression. “I’m doing this,” I thought. Of course I have a lot more to do, but maybe I will be able to do it.
Hmmm… I guess the quote I referenced earlier did help me, because, look, I have blogged over 300 words. I say “blogged” instead of “written” in deference to the Truman Capote line, “That’s not writing, that’s typing.” Do you suppose if he were still around, he would sniff at my blog, “That’s not writing, that’s pecking in one letter at a time with the stylus”?
Mohawk Valley Girl 