January 2001 Collab For Interpretations:
Distractions Transformed Into Attractions
I love many things. They include television, movies, books, magazines, shopping, reading online journals, and mindless surfing of the internet...all of which I ENJOY immensely. These things interest me greatly and I revel in them.
However, these loves become distractions and take on a time-suckage sort of personality. They feed on my energy and time when I should ALSO be attending to other things.
Things such as learning more about myself and what I want to accomplish today, tomorrow, and the future. Things such as spending more time with my son. I can honestly say that I feel guilty a lot because I think I don't spend enough time with him. I need to read to him more, play with him more, teach him more. He is at an age where learning comes quite easily and naturally. I should take more of an advantage of that but sometimes I would just rather read a book or watch television than actively doing something fun and/or educational with him. I get lazy sometimes. I want to sit back and relax. I am just the type of person who craves huge quantities of private time. This is something I am trying to change. My son is a bundle of beautiful energy and I should delight in this. If I pass the opportunity to make use of every possible bit of mother-son time I have now with him, I KNOW I will mournfully regret it later.
So, I will read my son a bedtime story tonight. No ifs, ands, or buts. Simple as that. Little steps go a long way.
I should be taking more of an active role in my OTHER interests...writing stories, creating art and clothing, trying to earn some money while I am staying at home with my son. These things are often neglected, shoved into the dusty corner lodged viciously in the back of my mind. They are touched upon every now and then, but only for fleeting moments...not enough time or effort to suffiently nurture their creation and blossoming.
These OTHER interests are often not the center of my attention because they require a good amount of dedication and desire. In other words...they take a certain degree of WORK. TRIAL AND ERROR. THINKING. PRACTICING. POLISHING.
And I did not yet mention...I can be the most evil procrastinator. It is something I have been all my life, though I have attempted and succeeded in breaking free from its grasp every once in a while. I have written papers for college classes far in advance of its due date. I have studied for tests a week before or more. But then I relapse. I have left everything important for the very last possible moment. I have written a 20-page research paper for a tough class one day before it was due. It took hours upon hours to plow through nine or ten written resources to construct and write that paper. It was personally my most notorious (and grueling) "all-nighter." However, I do fondly reminisce about the day the professor returned the paper back to me and I gasped at my perfect "A."
There were no distractions during that "all-nighter"...I had NO time for distractions. I guess I know how to handle pressure when I really , absolutely HAVE to. But I really could AND should make it easier on myself in situations such as the one mentioned. If I hadn't waited until the last day to write that huge paper, I might have saved myself needless anxiety and worry. I might have been able to sleep in peace that night and not have typed endlessly until the early hours of the morning.
Distractions. They CAN be good. You just need to set enough time out for OTHER IMPORTANT things. Start on that paper. Wash that pile of laundry. Call about that error on your insurance statement. Balance that bank checkbook. Complete those sit-ups. Do it now, not later. And then you can bundle up in your newly washed and dried cuddly blanket with that cup of hot coffee and that succulent book. And just ENJOY. This is when a magical transformation can occur. This is when the distraction is not a distraction anymore. It is just an ATTRACTION that you can enjoy.
Now, I really should take my own advice, don't you think?