Tune Ice

The month of December has brought forth the most posts here at my humble blog since June, exactly half a year ago. I suppose there are a few reasons for this, one of which being that I started a new job that allows me a little more free time in the evening than I once had. Another is that, while many of us get really contemplative closer to the start of a new year, this is the time I usually find myself looking back over the one we're about to put behind us... and whether related to what I'm thinking or not, writing is my outlet.

The Hook

Keeping up with new TV shows or staying interested in a particular series enough to watch it every week has never really been my thing. I'm more inclined to get into a random documentary on Netflix, like Happy - as a sidebar, definitely one I'd have to recommend, as a friend recommended it to me, and I loved it. If the nerd inside you appreciates quantum physics and the search for what happiness really is, you will also love it.

That said, there has been a time or two... or five... when I've had someone tell me I just have to see this show or that, so I check it out, and - lo and behold - after a lil bit I'm hooked. Of course, I usually find out about these shows about 2 or 3 seasons in on average, so I end up catching up to the current season via a marathon episode-watching event - complete with lots of wine, snacks, and pjs. It's exhilarating, trust me. :D

So, recently it happened again with a series called The Walking Dead, and by the first half of episode one, I was hopelessly hooked. This show had thrown out the bait, left me looking at it kind of sideways and squinty-eyed, made me nibble, slowly reeled me in, and then ~*¡WHAM!*~... hooked was I.  Rather than having me pondering a zombie apocalypse, however, I immediately appreciated how smart these producers were in the way that they grabbed my attention. They got it. And now they had me. That was Phase 1...

"Wild Geese"

A couple of years ago, a very dear colleague / friend / mentor of mine shared this poem with me - the first line of which I've made sort of a mantra: "You do not have to be good..." 

What a great statement. I'm a perfectionist for life, but part of my conscious effort to overcome that to whatever extent possible is recognizing that not only do I not have to be perfect, I do not even have to be good. Now that is profound. I do not have to be good. I can just be - whatever it is that I am that year, that month, that day, that moment - and I can accept that for what it is. Lovely.

"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

The More You Know: You might not be as weird as you think...

Allow me to tell you a few things about me: