Good morning, dear reader! I hope you’re revelling in the glory of a well-earned Saturday.
Today’s blog starts with a confession: my short-term memory is beyond appalling. This will come as no surprise to those of you who know me. I can clearly picture many of you smiling and rolling your eyes, probably thinking about a conversation that you had with me at least six times before it got lodged in my head. Sorry about that. It’s not that I don’t care; it’s that my brain is a very leaky sponge.
Having a rubbish memory is both a blessing and a curse. In one way, it’s a joy to go through life in a Dory-esque fashion, constantly believing myself to be discovering things for the first time. On the other hand, my lack of retention heralds in the slow but sure descent into dementia that definitely awaits me in my old age, and it tends to make my diary a lifeline rather than a useful reminder. Even when I do look at my diary, I appear to have started writing things down in a haphazard manner, without any reference to times, places or even dates. It’s a miracle that I’m ever on time for anything.
I would love to be able to say that at least some of this woolly-mindedness comes from the fact that I’m very busy, and that it’s difficult to keep track of all of the things I’m meant to be doing. In some ways this is true, but I know lots of people who are far busier than I am who cope just fine. My friend Laura has only recently stopped working 82 hour weeks, and another friend balances drama school with two jobs (and still finds the time to learn lines, write emails and – I sincerely hope – sleep and eat at some point). My life is full of self-employed people who co-ordinate incredibly complicated schedules, and still more full-timers who find time for very active social lives. One of my friends lives in Singapore working something ridiculous like 7am – 8pm every day, and he finds time to explore local countries, play music and be on a sports team. I cannot get my head around any of these people’s schedules. Their diaries must look like the Matrix in paperback format.
I love being busy, and I think that most of us can agree that being busy (even if we are perhaps a bit stressed) is much better than being bored and feeling unproductive. Sometimes we feel the need to occupy ourselves to the point of frenzy in order to avoid thinking about a certain person/problem, and that’s ok, too. I am a big fan of denial as long as it’s making itself useful, and if you can use your issues to make yourself more productive, more power to you. You might even find that a solution pops into your head unbidden while you’re doing something else, or that bit of space from the problem makes you feel differently about it. At some point you’ll be forced to confront your fears, but in the meantime I firmly approve of using the fingers-in-ears approach to get stuff done until you work out the solution to your dilemma.
Having said that, in yesterday’s blog I tasked you lovely people with the challenge of taking a chance this weekend, so maybe this is the perfect opportunity to get your head out of the sand and go and fix the issue…you never know, you might end up solving the problem. If you don’t, I hope you’ve got access to some nice coffee and a friend who will hug you. If not, you can borrow one of mine (friends, that is. Mine are pretty awesome, as friends go. I’ve also got enough coffee for everyone, so do feel free to pop by if you’re running low).
Have an insanely good Saturday.
SarcasTickled 