Hope everyone had a good week. I'm very conscious that tomorrow is inauguration day in the USA and, though we tend to keep political declarations out of this space, my sense is that none of us are happy about the next incumbent of the White House. We have also talked a lot on here about how for many of us, January, February and March are a slog to get through, for various reasons.
So, for today, do you have words you come back to in difficult times that inspire or comfort? A poem, a prayer, a song, a mantra? I had a lot of poems up in my temporary corner-of-the-spare-room-office in lockdown, but the text I would choose is the one above: from one of Barbara Kingsolver's essays. (If I could only choose one favourite author, she would be the one.) Her advice to focus on a 'single glorious thing' is advice I have come back to many times. Feel free to share a 'single glorious thing' of your own if words aren't what does it for you.
Last week's goals:
Heu mihi
1. Read AA's book
2. Finish syllabus; set up webpage
3. Keep plugging away at article: Review some scholarship; maybe hit 4k of
ideally non-garbage words
4. Exercise x6, sit x??
5. Begin reviewing research proposals (after Wednesday)
Susan
1. Read Famous Author aloud, to catch repetition and bad
phrasing.
2. Meet with editor about illustrations
3. Enjoy seeing colleagues when the library opens on Wednesday
4. Get back to exercise - walk, yoga, strength
5. Do expenses, tax stuff
6. Make sure there is something nice next weekend
Dame Eleanor
-keep working on revisions to a chapter
- do some scholarly reading
- attend one in-person meeting
- process at least 4 grad applications
- finish syllabus
- gym x5, swim x1, yoga x5
JaneB
1) SELF-CARE (recovery and self-kindness)
* habits: something creative, D&D, read a novel plus three chapters of
crusades book, intentional movement 15 minutes x 3 days, a social thing (a long
thank you/catching up letter to an old friend)
* Specific things - make a PLAN for reading the autistic self-care book
2) HOUSE-LIFE CARE
* 75% or more of the weekly minimal chores, tidy up the upstairs landing
3) TEACHING AND ADMIN
* marking - second year essay (all that were on time), if possible start third
year essay
* go through coming semester and make teaching preparation plan
* stay in my lane!
* finish chapter for senior grad student
4) RESEARCH
* edits for edited volume chapter
Daisy
Exercise 4 times
Do all winter course advising
Finish three reviews
Finish delayed analytical preparation
Lingering volunteer tasks for community group
Conference planning, meetings, reports
Contingent Cassandra
--Lead study leave related group discussion for which I’ve
been preparing
--Hold planning meeting with leader for next month’s discussion
--Follow up as necessary on emails I wrote last week & anything else that
arises from discussion I’m leading; answer one that’s been sitting in my inbox
for way too long
--Write email sharing plan for study leave project with leaders of organization
on which it focuses
--Do at least rough planning re: what I can realistically get done between now
and the end of the semester, and what I will do when.
--Start log for study leave project & related activities
--Check on fellowships/institutes to which I might apply; make plans to apply
if appropriate
--Visit local site with tangential link to Study Leave project
--Lift weights 3x; walk as weather allows, including one new route if possible;
experiment at least once with hall-walking/stair climbing in apt building
--Begin work on establishing a bedtime routine, including screens off two hours
before lights out and a wind-down activity such as reading, listening to
something, and/or handwork (probably mending for the moment) (this may be tough
because of evening (online) meetings, but should become more possible later in
the week, so at least make a start).
--Pack up & mail some packages (mixture of returns & gifts for family
members I didn’t see over Christmas)
Julie
1. Finish marking.
2. Teaching prep
3. Research: at least one day on article.
4. Evaluate proposals for summer workshop (committee meeting Tuesday)
5. Exercise: run x 3, pilates x 1, walk other days.
6. Start some travel planning.
The words I return to are not glorious but stoic: concentrate on the things you have power to change, not those you don't (IOW, eyes on own page). It's a good philosophy, and it helps, though there are times when I need to remind myself of this about every five minutes.
ReplyDeleteLike now, for instance. LRU has a Thing that I applied for, pre-pandemic, and came close to getting though it went to someone else at that time. Since then, more money has been discovered for the Thing, and it has been reconfigured in ways that have been signaled to my department, and specifically to me, as A Big! Improvement! for which I should apply when the new version is released. Well, it has been released, and the Thing has changed from something I found interesting into something where my response is along the lines of "How much do I have to pay not to do this?" I see why it has happened this way, and I have colleagues who are well-suited to it and would deserve it, but I am disappointed that I can't apply for the original Thing that I did like the idea of.
Tant pis.
How I did:
- keep working on revisions to a chapter: YES (one session)
- do some scholarly reading: YES (minimal)
- attend one in-person meeting: YES
- process at least 4 grad applications: NO (partly b/c the pile is now discouragingly huge!)
- finish syllabus: NO (but progress has been made, partly by a TA)
- gym x5, swim x1, yoga x5: YES, NO (wrist not up to swimming yet), YES (might be only x4, but close enough)
New goals:
- keep working on revisions to a chapter
- do some scholarly reading
- process at least 4 grad applications
- finish syllabus
- gym x4, swim x1, yoga x5
- buy more marmelade*
*This is in the "gifts to self" category. I finally found a source for the bitter orange marmelade I love, after some years of it just not being available around here, and I feel a bit like Pooh Bear with a big pot of honey.