Plans

[girlyswot]

I knew I needed a plan for the new lockdown and I liked very much mountainkiss's post of lists, so I thought I would do something similar. I have divided it into 'lockdown plans', 'winter plans' and 'future plans'. Some are plans for selfcare to get through, others are goals to accomplish, or hopes and wishes which may or may not be possible. But one of the things I have struggled with in the last couple of months is the sense of not having anything to look forward to. I always feel a bit like that at this time of year with Christmas looming, but this year is particularly bad.


Lockdown plans

• Take time every Sunday to plan the week using as many stickers, coloured pens and washi tapes as possible.
• Do the same on Thursday afternoons for the next work week.
• Read a psalm and pray every morning.
• Plan a healthy food menu every ten days or so and shop for it.
• Try to speak to at least one friend on the actual phone every week (not Zoom).
• Arrange to meet Amanda for outdoor walks as often as possible.
• Keep up with housework every Saturday.
• Find ways to stay in touch with art teacher and keep doing art (paper plate project?)
• Plan evenings to include an hour of sewing, a bath, and limited TV.
• Be strict about bedtimes and getting up times.
• Watch church live every Sunday, dressed and focussing on it, not doing other things.

Winter plans

• Fill the gallery wall around the TV.
• Fill the circular art wall above the beam.
• Finish and give away the crochet blanket.
• Make a new poncho.
• Assess sock wardrobe and replenish as needed.
• Make a plan for and survive through Christmas.
• Make plans for the garden for 2021.
• Consider a new daily writing practice, e.g. Lent blogs?
• Re-establish better habits of exercise and eating

Future plans

• Art holiday in July.
• Keswick week 3 in August.
• Investigate possibility of a hot tub.
• Restart the Little Art Collective.
• See as many friends in person as possible.

Comments

[mountainkiss]

HOT TUB.

You and I should plan something for next year.

[girlyswot]

YES PLEASE YES.

[mountainkiss]

What shall we plan?

[mountainkiss]

I'm thinking spa hotel weekend at some point in the summer.

[girlyswot]

That sounds perfect.

[mountainkiss]

Happy to start planning this whenever you are.

[girlyswot]

Let’s wait until January.

[mountainkiss]

Sounds like a plan.

[mountainkiss]

What are washi tapes?

[girlyswot]

Rolls of sticky paper tape that are printed with beautiful patterns (and some not so beautiful patterns, inevitably).

[mountainkiss]

Spellcheck changed it to “washiest”, which I’d mind less if it were actually a word.

[mountainkiss]

I loved your Lent women.

[mountainkiss]

I think you might well still be locked down over Christmas, but if not I bet you can find some kind of virtual retreat practice centred around the birth of Christ.

[girlyswot]

Yes. I am sort of hoping that we will be locked down, tbh. Though I suspect that if it is at all possible, there will be some kind of family thing that I will have to go to.

[mountainkiss]

My point is that you don’t have to, truly. Though it is not my business.

[girlyswot]

It's balancing the bliss of not being there with the emotional stress of the fallout from not going. And, to be fair, one silver lining of this year has been the scarcity of family events.

[mountainkiss]

That's why I'm wondering how you can create a set of obligations that are unarguable. In my head, the parallel is with ministers who actually take Christmas Day services. Their profession is the same as yours, and nobody tells them they should be showing up for personal set pieces. But there might be a Gryffindor / Slytherin thing going on here.

[girlyswot]

The problem is that if I have created the obligations, I will still feel the guilt/stress. And I don't have any external obligations that exempt me.

[mountainkiss]

Even if you are doing something of genuine service?

[girlyswot]

I don’t know. I think that even if I were helping in a soup kitchen or whatever, I would know I was really running away.

[mountainkiss]

I wish you could convince yourself it's actually okay to run away from this. It's not a real obligation. But you have to do what is right for you.