Spaghetti thoughts
I keep wanting to write a coherent entry with a theme, one I can wrap into a nice package where the end hearkens back to the beginning. I’ve started twice and deleted. Instead I’m got to throw random thoughts into their own paragraphs and see what I come up with. This is like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks.
Today’s first post-school hour was filled with trauma. This was not because of any large or important events. It was because of severe crankiness on the part of three children. The second day of school is like that. We still have biorythmic adjustments to do. Also Link stayed up late last night because he needed to talk over body image, growing up, and friendships. It took quite a lot of listening and discussing to soothe him enough to sleep. He is so afraid of growing up. What I fail to mention to him is that his concern is an indicator that growing up has already begun. Patch’s cranky was made worse by the skin reaction he has from drinking chocolate milk at school yesterday. I told him he could try the milk to see if it caused a problem. It did. I’ll be sending juice boxes to school with him so that he can drink those instead.
Last year when school started it felt like I was catching my balance after stumbling around all summer long. It has not felt that way so far this year. Perhaps I need to give things a few more days to settle, but I’m not sure it will be that simple. Not having kids home during the day is a major shift in my life rhythm. I’m glad for it. I’m going to do good things with it, but I think settling in will take me a week or two. It is rather like moving into a large new house with all the stuff I crammed into a much smaller one. I know you’ll like it better, but at the moment I’m still not sure where everything goes.
In the past two days I have been asked for a medical opinion (on minor issues) twice. It is fascinating to me that people would turn to me for this sort of thing. It is even more boggling that I actually had a helpful answer both times. In both cases I’d had practical experience with similar things. In one of the cases my opinion was “You should see a doctor about that.” I have some basic knowledge, but I know when to call in the experts.
This past week has been a listening week for me. I’ve listened to Howard as he unpacks the convention experiences he had. I’ve listened to Link’s concerns. I’ve listened to Kiki talk about her friends and hopes for the coming year. I’ve listened to Gleek’s sadness at feeling left out of things. I’ve listened to Patch’s bedtime fears. I’ve listened while a friend worked through a major shift in her life. I’ve listened while a different friend sorted thoughts on a long standing issue. All of this listening requires more than just ears. I have to pay attention and seek inside to find what words will be best to answer with. And the words come. The right stories surface in my brain. I am so grateful for the inspiration that comes to me when I have important listening to do. And invariably I walk away from the conversation more whole myself because I spent time on something that mattered.
The pallet of books arrived back from GenCon. We sent about twice as much stuff as was necessary. This means that our profit margin is very slim. We broke even, but didn’t make much more than that. This is useful data for another year. I want nothing more than to not think about GenCon for awhile, but we’re already planning for next year. We are planning many things for next year and there are already more cool possibilities than we have the ability to follow through on. I need to go re-read my post about opportunities.
Aha. I just figured out how to connect the end to the beginning. If my ideas are like spaghetti noodles which I throw against the wall to see if they’re done, then my brain is like the sieve I use to strain the spaghetti. Only the holes are too large and it seems like half the spaghetti went slipping down the drain before I even got to the throwing part.