What a Difference a Day Makes!

I'm having a "pottering" day. No Internet. No "news."

p.s. a day later. The word is “puttering!” Not pottering! Do I ever feel silly. Oh well. Thanks to the friend who corrected me!!

I spent wayyyy too much time on the Internet this past week.

Emails. Substacks (my own & other people's). Podcasts. Facebook private messages.

Really overdid it.

By yesterday it was making me feel crazy.

So.

Today [now yesterday] I'm taking a break.

Just ... "pottering." (Okay. Puttering.)

• Freshened up/trimmed out a gorgeous flower arrangement I was sent for my recent birthday.

• Straightened out a messy drawer in my desk.

• Wrote a card to an old friend that I'd been meaning to write for days.

• Finally wrote up & mailed my annual membership cheque to a group I support.

• Knocked off the last few pages of a novel I've been reading.

• Had a walk along the Boardwalk, where I ran into an acquaintance I hadn't seen in years, and we had a bit of a chat.

• Picked up some honey at the store I buy that kind of stuff at.

• Popped into the library to drop off one book & pick up another.

• Had a friendly brief chat with a storeowner (& a fellow customer) at a store I frequent in my neighbourhood.

• Contemplated paying some bills that need paying – but that would require the Internet, so I'm putting it off. Tomorrow will do!

• & a bunch of other stuff…

And it isn't raining today!! The sun is being conspicuously elusive – as it so often is in recent days/weeks/months/years – but at least it isn't raining. Hence my huge relief at being able to walk after a few days of house arrest. I rust up if I don't walk regularly!

It's all felt heavenly!

Too much Internet time (I access it via a laptop, not a phone) makes me feel rushed. Anxious. By yesterday it was making me feel downright crazy. So today? No thank you.

This wild roller coaster ride we're (all) on these days ... maybe even if we largely ignore the outside world? I think anxiety is in the ether; you know?? ... can spare me for a day.

Janet

p.s. I almost never do this thing of giving myself "permission to potter." (Putter.) It's clear to me today that I ought to do it more often! There are 20-11 other things I could've done, you understand. More neatening, straightening, cleaning, organizing ... whatever. On a pottering (pottering) day? I do what I feel like doing. Things that need doing, & that I feel in the mood to do. And it feels grrrrreat!