Full disclosure? I haven't left the RV a single time today. It's nearly four o'clock in the afternoon, and I haven't been outside. I also haven't exercised (I aim for 10,000 steps each day), except to pace around inside (I'm at 1,000 and counting). And this, my usual Monday lunchtime missive? Until moments ago, I had no idea what I'd write to you.

Days like today happen. They just do.

As for what I have accomplished today? I've received 90 minutes of really awesome coaching from a mentor who offered me a free session. I've had a good cry (I don't know about you, but I always count good cries as productive uses of my time). I've bathed and eaten lunch and remembered to stay hydrated. And I've had a meaningful chat with a very dear friend who needed comforting.

I'm always a bit intrigued by days that, on the surface, suggest an absence of forward movement. It would be too easy to dismiss them as idle or lazy or lacking organization. And it wouldn't even be accurate. You see, the days that I'm up and moving right away are usually the same days that I'm avoiding something—hence all the doing. At first glance, it's all energy, efficiency, and accomplishment. But, deeper? Deeper, it's more likely anxiety, restlessness, or distraction. A fear of staying still, quieting myself, listening to what's really inside, and then deciding if there's anything I want to (or even can) do about it.

Today was a slow cooker day. I didn't speed around, ticking things off my list. I sat (literally) with my Monday feelings; I learned a few things about myself; I was of service to a friend in need.

If you were to expand your definition to include the ecological meaning, you'd understand that productivity doesn't refer exclusively to the production of biological material, or biomass. In fact, contextually, the term refers to a ratio, one that's used when talking about the balance in an ecosystem. More specifically, productivity is concerned with balancing the rate that resources are taken from the ecosystem with the rate that they are made.

How can you redefine your understanding of your own productivity in such a way that you make allowances for resource replenishment, for those slow cooker days? Hit 'reply' and tell me. I'd love to hear from you.

'Til soon,
Helen

Notes from the week of October 11

STARTED

+ obsessing about getting my hands on a copy of Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
+ the bag of Halloween candy that's meant for campground trick-or-treaters...
+ wearing a sweatshirt outside
+ a fancy bottle of Italian red wine that was gifted to me months ago
+ a new Moleskine notebook (in a purpley color, and with dots instead of lines!)
+ making my own simple syrup
+ watching the 2004 version of TV series Battlestar Galactica (and loving it—a fact that surprises no one more than me)

FINISHED

+ addressing Halloween cards to all the little people (and a few big people) in my life
+ wearing sandals until next summer

PODCASTS DISCOVERED

+ Good Life Project
+ First Day Back
+ The RobCast

LOCAL COLOR EXPERIENCED

+ The American Pigeon Museum & Library

SOUVENIRS PURCHASED

+ a tote bag from said pigeon museum

CURIOSITIES TO BE MADE

+ teacups
+ mulled cider