Things I did today within my circle of control while the many dumpster fires in the circle of concern raged on: a list.

Remember: the more time you put into the circle of control, the less space you give to all the dumpster fires in concern.

Let’s see: walked the dog, picked up the garbage that the crazy garbage marauders tore through, drank coffee and read some articles about an idea I have, emailed the sanitation dept about the garbage marauders...and got a response!...

But then I went on the internet and all that does is remind you of how much you can’t control and how EVERYTHING is concerning. So I gave myself a facial, put on some work clothes, put on my Discover playlist, and went to work.

Did some work stuff with @KSGardiner, untangled silly bureaucratic knots in order to 1.) hire some students and 2.) get some computers wiped and reloaded with software. I didn’t even complete these two things! I just did some of the steps but felt POWERFUL.

Watched this video suggested by Kathryn about communicating. Wrote down a lot of tips. I ALWAYS use too many slides and too many words. Hoo boy.

That hour or two spent watching that video was effing bliss. I didn’t think about the world at all. And as soon it was over and I opened up Twitter, I thought, This is a mistake. So I did some small task—writing an email, I think.

Our dishwasher is broken and thank God, because I’ve fallen in love with doing the dishes by hand while listening to music. This song has been getting me through. https://open.spotify.com/track/01JIBiK28WrG4TVANW8hJY?si=6g9B1ukgSje7AwhPLwGSFg

Then I filled my pill dispensers. And now I’m writing down all the things I did today that were in my control. Going over them like this—first telling them to Eric at dinner, now you—is almost as helpful as doing the actual things themselves.

Now I’m going to cut and paste this thread into my Covid diary. Yes, its week 19. (Do you remember back in Narch how a month of this seemed like a long time?) Keeping this diary has helped me so much. It’s like documentary footage I can edit.

You have a diary. Go back on your twitter and Facebook and insta and your photos and look at the what you were saying and noticing 20 weeks ago. So much footage. Look for the throughlines of the novel of your life. Take a step back, see the story. You control that. You do.

Tonight I’m going to meditate. I’ve been off and on about it lately, but there’s no better way to train yourself to stay in the moment. Also: I highly recommend taking pictures of flowers as a form of self care!