 Early in March, Land of Plenty came and cleared the Norway Maples to make room for the food forest shrubs and trees. Charlotte, Ruby and I spent a couple of days making permaculture piles of branches and duff. The stickies on the scrum board were moving from the "Planned", to the "Ongoing", to the "DONE" column. Things were happening! It was so exciting! Then we had a snowstorm... And a week later, another one. And a week after that, one more (small one). Everything is buried in snow. There is nothing we can do outside (aside from shovel - with the appropriate technology, of course). Today, nearly three weeks later, we have made no progress at all. It has been absolutely maddening. I have stomped my feet. I have sworn never to spend another March in Boston ever again. I have spent days obsessively checking the weather app on my phone, wanting to make the snow forecast disappear through over-exposure. One day, I was so desperate, I took the wheelbarrow and tried to wheel it around in the snow, thinking this might work, we could put down wood chips. But it doesn't work. The only thing that could be done was: practice patience.
It's true that at the beginning of the month, I was feeling completely overwhelmed. It seemed like the TODO list with all the things I am doing -- Big Foot being just one of them -- was getting longer and longer, and even daily routines like making the bed and playing some violin were getting lost in the fray. With all the snow, I figured I had better just start going down that list. Ruby helped, one day putting up shelves that I'd been meaning to get to for months. I finalized the Big Foot business plan. Got our taxes prepared. Played the violin daily and got a little better at the Kreisler and Beethoven pieces I'm working on. Spent some time with Josephine in a relaxed way. Did some work for the Education Commission (my still-client from the career I am ending to go into food production). Finished some Neighbor Spotlights for Green Needham; made a cashflow sheet for Simply Circus to fulfill my treasurer duties. Until, quite by surprise, the other day, I realized I was no longer stressed. The TODO list had been whittled down to a few items. The weeks of not working outside had given me enough time to catch up. Instead of struggling, I felt peace. It was pretty nice. Comments are closed.
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