Tag: Life’s Challenges

  • January 12, 2025

    It was an unusual Sunday only because I woke up rather early. At about 6:15, the cats had had enough of waiting and started whining for their breakfast. Hannah woke up to feed them. When she came back, I thanked her and fell asleep for maybe half an hour. Then, I found myself shopping for tools on Amazon for another hour while “watching” The New Yankee Workshop.

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  • July 2, 2024

    At 6:17 this morning, Eloise started scratching at my butt through the duvet to let me know that she was hungry. I told her to go away and wait until 7. She hopped over my leg and snuggled into Hannah. Eloise soon learned that she wasn’t going to get fed.

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  • April 16, 2024

    Every day, I’ll have multiple interactions, sort of, that’ll remind me that I am a nobody to somebody. It could be in the hallways at school when I’ll pass a colleague who doesn’t seem to notice me, looking straight ahead to the distant stairwell. It’ll definitely be while I’m on the road when someone willfully forgets that there are other cars around. It could be at the grocery store when someone puts themselves between me and the shelf I’m looking for an item on.

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  • April 11, 2024

    Hannah wanted to clean the litter boxes. Not just take out the waste but empty the boxes entirely and wash them. We’ve had a new box of litter in the trunk of the car since our last trip to Costco a few weeks ago. She needed it to refill the litter boxes.

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  • March 12, 2024

    Things occur to me while I’m writing my morning pages. During the week, I’m less distracted, but also less, shall we say, creative. No, not creative, but maybe, whimsical. Given that it’s currently March Break, it’s like each day this week is a weekend day, a Saturday or a Sunday. More of a Saturday. Given a choice, I’d rather do things on a Saturday.

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  • February 8, 2024

    One of the most common conversations I’ve been having lately are about how tired people are. Amongst my colleagues, a simple knowing glance in one another’s direction is enough to convey the same message: I’m wiped. This fatigue is more than just a bad night’s sleep.

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  • October 1, 2023

    All I needed from today was time to sleep. After waking up, I went through my regular morning routine. Within a couple of hours, after a travel mug hit me in the face, I was ready for a nap.

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  • September 23, 2023

    I needed an easy win today. I went to the workshop. It didn’t quite work out the way I was hoping it would.

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  • September 7, 2023

    I’ve been grumpy about work. This isn’t my usual curmudgeon self coming through, this is a real response to returning to work after the summer. This morning, I was thinking about why.

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  • August 27, 2023

    “I have to give this a go,” I keep telling myself. My parents reiterate the same to me when I speak with them. “If I don’t try this, I’ll always wonder what could’ve come of it.” So, I’m doing it. Most of the time, it’s pretty good. Sometimes, I get nervous.

    I’m an anxious person, that I know. It’s hard for me to let things go, whether that’s a mistake I made or a new tool that I want. I fixate on what might be or could’ve been instead of what’s all in front of me. I know, truly, that I have everything I could need and more. If moving all that shit over the workshop hasn’t given me any insight into just how much I have…my optometry benefits renew in September.

    Diving into this project, that of making and selling handcrafted wooden (mostly) goods, as I’ve done this summer, has been really good for me. It’s given me a focus. My mom keeps reminding me that it’s a passion of mine and it also happens to be something I’m good at. Her gentle encouragement is a result of my complete inability to accept a compliment or praise from my parents. Before now, the closest that I’d gotten to woodworking was holding the flashlight for my dad. Occasionally, I’d swing a hammer — the rusty one.

    What’s really been bothering me these last few days is the cost. It’s cost a lot to get this project off the ground. While I do feel like I’m making gains, I’m the one financing all of it. Nothing is selling right now. There is no money coming in.

    Yet. This is a tortoise and hare tale.

    To be fair, my advertising and marketing strategy is piss poor. I’ve been spending more time trying to get myself in a position to make things. I’ve been making things, too, just not enough. There are a few pens that I need to photograph and post pictures of, though. I don’t read all the emails that I get sent about how to grow your small business. Who’s got the time for that?

    It feels like I’m having trouble situating myself. Where, in all of this, do I belong? Squarely in the centre. I’m the bubble in the middle of the mind map, the one that looks like a cloud and has bold letters in it. From this position, you can only see out in front of you, not what’s beside or behind. Everything is drawn out from here and remains connected.

    Right now, it’s hard for me to identify the gains that I’ve made. I’m seeing the forest, not the trees. Wood is crucial to the success of this enterprise.

  • August 8, 2023

    August 8, 2023

    I must’ve gone on for at least half an hour, if not 45-minutes, while we were driving back from PEI, about whether I should post links to my blog posts on my Instagram Stories. It’s been on my mind for about a week. Every time I ran through an argument, I ended up at the same conclusion: I don’t know.

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  • July 18, 2023

    July 18, 2023

    The last couple of days haven’t been bad but things haven’t felt like they’re going right. It’s as if all of my actions are being tempered by a tension band. Nothing is impossible but it’s a little harder and sometimes I just don’t have the strength to follow through.

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