![\"cutemaddy\"](\"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/cutemaddy-150x150.jpg\" "\\"cutemaddy\\"")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I start to live in my head too much, and neglect my body because of the Dance of a Hundred Things to Do, my body slides down the hill FAST.\u00a0 This is a surefire sign of aging:\u00a0 take a walk, and every joint hurts:\u00a0 toes, hips, shoulders, ankles.\u00a0 Clothes feel tight.\u00a0 Negotiating small spaces is awkward.\u00a0 Simple everyday yoga poses are a challenge.<\/p>\n
I think, somewhere Alex, there’s a woman your age training for a marathon, a triathalon; she’s swimming laps, she’s riding her bike. \u00a0\u00a0 Somewhere there’s a woman my age who is a competitive body builder.\u00a0 She’s got her body fat percentage down low.\u00a0 And although those women might not have — as Annie Lamott suggested once — rich inner lives, I’ll bet they are pretty grounded.\u00a0 When you care for the body, the spirit and the mind calm down.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I can’t write a blog post right now that is simply a repeat of the most boring litany in the world:\u00a0 “I’m going to get myself back in shape.”\u00a0 Ho hum.<\/p>\n
I was talking in class about the urgent getting in the way of the important.\u00a0 That’s a Steven Covey idea:\u00a0 the urgent needs to be done now, but does nothing to advance the goals I have set for myself.\u00a0 Writing, sitting zazen, stretching and strength training,\u00a0 playing golf, gardening, taking long rambling walks…these activities have to supercede the Dance of a Hundred Things.\u00a0 And yes, I know the trick of putting those things on the Dance Card, and marking them “A” for top priority.\u00a0 So I will do that, but I always laugh a little in my head when I look down in my Franklin planner and see on the list, “Sit Zazen.”\u00a0 It seems like a funny little zen joke.<\/p>\n
Anyway, now it’s back to work.\u00a0 First, I have to run out and buy cream for my coffee.\u00a0 Very important.\u00a0 And cook the chicken, and iron the blouse, and wash the dirty clothes, and make the Powerpoint, and send the email, and check my homework, and get myself ready for a busy day tomorrow.\u00a0 Calling the city inspectors to come out and look at the sheeting on my roof so we can purchase roofing material, and get a roof on the house before the rain falls.\u00a0 If it ever does.\u00a0 We are in a drought, but still.\u00a0 Why tempt fate?<\/p>\n
Took out a loan so Maddy can finish her senior year.\u00a0 We didn’t want to, but we had to.\u00a0 I wonder where we will be next year, as she tries to enter the job market.\u00a0 Chemists are eminently employable, but Maddy has something specific in mind (brewing), so we’ll see how it goes.\u00a0 She has lived a charmed life thus far, and there’s no reason I can think of that this good luck and wind-at-her-back needs to change.<\/p>\n
Here she is — cute as can be.\u00a0 The truth about parenting is that it is the same as running a long race.\u00a0 You look out at the tree in the distance and say, “I just want to get to that tree, and I’ll be OK.”\u00a0 Then at the tree, you set a new goal, “I’ll just run to where that red truck is parked up ahead, and then I’ll let myself rest.”\u00a0 So, I thought getting her through high school was the biggest challenge:\u00a0 the challenge of the driver’s license, the parties, all of the trouble that can waylay a young person.\u00a0 Then, the goal was just to get her settled at a good college.\u00a0 But now, as she approaches graduation, I worry about her work life.\u00a0 “Worry” is the wrong word — Maddy has proven herself to be a smart and resourceful person.\u00a0 But I do want her to land somewhere where she will be able to use her skills & her education; where she will be appreciated and valued, and where her work will be interesting and engaging.\u00a0 That she will be surrounded by people who “get” her.\u00a0 What a luxurious thing to think about, though.\u00a0 So many mothers must carry much deeper concerns for their children, and here I am hoping people “get” my daughter and that her work will be interesting.\u00a0 I understand that I am blessed.\u00a0 Nobody can love a child as completely as a mom, but of course, children don’t really get that; they are not supposed to, or they could never move out on their own.\u00a0 I know I didn’t understand how hard my mother prayed for me.\u00a0 Loving my daughter taught me to reconsider my own mother anew.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I start to live in my head too much, and neglect my body because of the Dance of a Hundred Things to Do, my body slides down the hill FAST.\u00a0 This is a surefire sign of aging:\u00a0 take a walk, and every joint hurts:\u00a0 toes, hips, shoulders, ankles.\u00a0 Clothes feel tight.\u00a0 Negotiating small spaces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,20,22],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-learning","category-selfcare","tag-body-balance-selfcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexfaye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}