My three days away were really worthwhile. I spent a lot of time in the bush, walking and meditating. I slept like a baby and certainly had a very peaceful, reflective time.
(*just scroll down & click the video in the previous post first, then come back, & you will hear what it's was like as you read on)I've come back feeling more clear about some of the changes I want to make in simplifying my life. One of the things I'm going to work at is just doing one thing at a time.
I have a bad habit of doing several things at once. I might be watching TV, eating, checking emails and reading blog posts. Or I might be doing a report, doing a load of washing, surfing the net and listening to a podcast, all at the same time.
So my goal now is to just do one thing, and to be focused on that thing. If I find that I cannot get everything done then perhaps the message I've been ignoring is that I'm doing too much. I will be forced to face my overscheduling and make some choices about what needs to go, instead of simply trying to work faster and harder. It's a shift in priorities. I'm not willing to just keep running faster and faster anymore.
I got up this morning early and had a cup of tea. I just sat here in the quite and really enjoyed the warmth of the cup in my hands, the sweet smell of chamomile, the feeling of being warmed inside.
Usually I would be gulping it down while doing other things.
Then I put a podcast on and just sat and listened to it. I'm sure I took more of it in than usual. After I post this I am ready to do my morning flylady chores and then it's time to get ready for work. I stopped turning the television on in the mornings last week and that has really helped me feel less rushed. I'm not going to start my day with doom and gloom anymore.
The other thing I am going to do is just have one file on my desk at a time, and one webpage open at a time. My desk usually has about 8 files on it, a list of jobs to do and any other paperwork that needs doing.
When I'm on the internet I have about 4 pages open, usually my emails, some blogs and other sites. I jump from one to the other constantly, thinking I'm saving time. From now on it's one page at a time, one file at a time, one task at a time.
The bush was so beautiful and I went out early each morning walking. Here are some photos from my time away as well as some of my favourite quotes.
“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”
Alfred D'Souza
To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.
Helen Keller
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church, I keep it staying at Home - With a bobolink for a Chorister, And an Orchard, for a Dome.
Emily Dickenson
"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature."
Anne Frank
"No man ever steps in the same river twice,
for it's not the same river & he's not the same man."
Heraclitus
After all, I don't see why I am always asking for private, individual, selfish miracles when every year there are miracles like white dogwood.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle.
But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes.
All is a miracle.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
It's a month since I employed DD as a my administration manager / personal assistant and it really has made a BIG difference to my business productivity and my general stress levels. 
