A Minute of Mindfulness: Remembering Lake Fanny Hooe
It was two or three days ago that I decided I was going to do another Minute of Mindfulness post today. Little did I know, I was the one that was going to need a bit of calm and relaxation this morning.
It all started with @mrsbozz's alarm going off at 4:15 AM this morning. That's actually the same time it goes off every weekday, so nothing unusual there. She decided that she wasn't going to get up and work out, and since I was still feeling a little sore from my workout on Monday and Tuesday, she didn't get much of an argument from me.
She snoozed it for another half hour and drifted off to sleep. Just about that time, our dog Jovi decided she need to go to the bathroom. All the way down the hall... It's not her fault, she is 14 years old and nerve damage in her back legs and rear make it so that she doesn't realize she has to go until it is actually coming out of her. Thankfully it is solid!
So I got up and cleaned up her mess, gave her the morning pill she gets, fed her, and put her out one more time. I crawled back into bed, but I was pretty much fully awake, so I just laid there thinking about what I had to get done today.
We eventually get up and start getting ready for work, and my wife mentions that she needs $5 for something. I tried to make a mental note of it and went on with getting dressed for work.
Fast forward a couple of minutes and we are in the kitchen getting our lunches and breakfast ready. I've never been properly diagnosed as ADHD, but my wife is a School Social Worker, so she has identified and worked with students who suffer from it for years. She has confirmed that I do indeed have some form of it.
I grab my wallet and put it in my pocket, then I start reaching for my keys. Only to remember that she needed $5. I pull my wallet out of my pocket, set the five dollars on the counter for her, put the wallet back in my pocket and start filling our water bottles.
Do you see where this is going?
@mrsbozz and I both work for the same school district, so we make the half hour ride to work together most days. We get to work and @mrsbozz says oh crap I forgot my key to get in the building. No problem, I have a key to every building in the district, so I reach into my pocket only to realize I also don't have my keys.
That break in my routine to give her the $5 totally messed me up and I never grabbed my office keys. She was able to get into her building, but I had to wait in the car for an hour for someone that had a key to get me into my office. There are only about five people in the district who have a key and none of them come in as early as me.
I finally found someone, I borrow their key, and then this happens:
I try to turn the key in the lock and instead of opening, the whole cylinder comes out in my hand. Luckily, my office has more than one door, so I was able to go to the other one and finally get in.
By now, I am a good hour behind on my regular morning Hive routine. I type up my 800 word post in 3Speak, hit the save button and wait for it to encode the video properly. Only to be given a message that the encoding failed and I can't find any way of republishing it. So here I am re-typing my 800 word post in what has been a very rough morning for me.
As I said, fitting that my post today is about mindfulness and taking a minute to find some inner peace.
The video above was taken on the shores of Lake Fanny Hooe in the Northernmost point of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Even today, the area is a pretty vast wilderness. Back when Fort Wilkins was established on the shores of the lake, it was even more so.
The military presence was there to help ensure the safety of the mining and fur trading operations that were taking place in that area of the state. A handful of soldiers, miners, trappers, Native Americans, and maybe a few civilians were basically stuck in the middle of nowhere.
As harsh as I know the winters get in this part of the state, part of me wonders what it must have been like to have lived there during that time. Isolated from the world, with a view like that to wake up to every morning. It's almost a dream come true right?
If you have had a rough morning like me, or a rough week, month, year... I hope you can take a moment and watch this video and find a bit of inner peace. Do some belly breathing (follow @ericvancewalton's blog for more info on that), and maybe reset yourself.
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
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Oh man, I'm sorry! That's quite some morning! I hope you were able to rebalance quickly. That kind of beginning can easily throw you off kilter for the day.
Yeah, I am finally getting caught up now. I actually handled it a lot better than I thought I would. I just have to plan a little better with 3Speak and slow down a bit when I am leaving the house!
I would not like to say that was stressful but it is actually a lot
Make sure you try to rest
Thanks, I appreciate it!
I respect the way you solve and adapt to the problem. That's the way, friend!! Nice post, though
Thank you!
As they say, sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you!
I've had mornings like that. I try to put it out of my mind as quickly as possible and just move on. But I do know the frustration!
Edit: BTW, my two strategies for avoiding that kind of ADD/ADHD mindlessness is to 1) wake up early and slow down, trying to do only one thing at a time (like that post on mindfulness I wrote a while ago) and 2) I have a checklist I go through before I leave. Kind of like an airplane takeoff checklist, but mine is written the night before when I write down my schedule for the next day before bed. There is a fantastic book called The Checklist Manifesto that inspired me in this. I can't recommend that book enough.
My wife asked me if I needed a checklist. I told her I would have been fine if it hadn't been for that five dollars. That's what screwed everything up for me! Thanks for the info. I might have to check that book out. Slowing down is hard, especially if I plan on working out. I would have to get up at 3am!
Ouch ... those days happen. I thought us getting up at 5 am was early enough but your 4.15am beats us!
It's brutal, let me tell you. I thought after a year or so it might get easier, but it really doesn't!
Take a load of Fanny ….
Great song! I love The Band. Pretty sad that Robertson just passed away.
Yeah. Each time one of these great musicians passes away I go on a 2-3 month YouTube deep dive into their music and biographies. It’s sad that Robbie and Levon had such a difficult break up and struggle over the years since the Last Waltz. They were awesome together along with Rick, Richard, and Garth … so much tragedy in the lives and deaths of these great musicians.
Yes, very well said!