Thwarted

I’ve shared previously on how I tend to use the library for blogging, and how the renovation of the Central Branch has forced me to change my routine. I adapted to that change better in June and July than I expected I would.  Creativity and determination flowed!  (yes, I know, 4 or 5 or 6 blogs a month is not a great production for many, but as an engineer unaccustomed to creative writing, it is a great milestone for me!).  I was on track to survive the changes, survive the disruption……..

Or not. Here it is the end of October and …..I’m still out of my routine.  Apparently, library renovations work similarly to home renovations, taking longer to finish than anticipate.  At least that’s what I’m surmising from the change in the date of the re-opening of the Central Branch.  Originally it was set for early September, just after school started.  I even stopped by that weekend, only to find a still empty parking lot and still shuttered doors.  I went on line (which I should have done earlier, yes I know, thank you very much) and discovered it would be early October.

(sigh)

Okay, I can survive it another month.  And my production of pieces in September suggests that I was able to keep the new routine going.  But then it moved from early October to mid….to late…and now to early November.  Will this dangling promise ever be done?  Do they have Michelangelo giving the completion date to Pope Julius?

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/agony-ecstacy-change-manager-ron-leeman

I’m frustrated that I lost my blog mojo in October because of this. I put off work at the East Columbia Branch because I wanted to be back in my familiar haunts. The delay caused me to slip, to neglect, to ignore the writing I wanted to do.  The pending dark of Eastern Standard Time isn’t going to help me get back into the groove either, as the promise that Winter is Coming only brings with it the promise of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) that accompanies the loss of daylight and warmth.

Grumbling only helps a little.  But grumbling in writing, that helps more because at least I’m writing.   Perhaps I’m finally going back to the First Rule and reminding myself of it yet again.

And aren’t you glad at least that I’m not writing about the 1000-day Siege of the 2016 Election? 😀

Ned Talks :)

Yes…that was  a deliberate play on the Ted Talks title 😀

 

The Howard County Library is once again having a good speaker session at the LEED Gold Miller Branch on Thursday October 20.  Local author and naturalist Ned Tillman will be speaking  on “Saving the Places We Love”, his second book (third is in the works!).  I haven’t read this one, but his first book “The Chesapeake Watershed” was a great multifaceted talk about the history, geology, biology and function of the Chesapeake Bay and the watershed that feed it.  I particularly like the discussion of the Patapsco River Valley from a natural and historical perspective. It is not a great stretch to read that book and understand how the terrible Ellicott City flood of this summer came to be so devastating.

I’d recommend coming out early…if you haven’t walked on the green roof of the Library, it is a gorgeous pieces of extensive green roof, wonderfully planted and tied into the patio, and the interior carpet to evoke the waters of the valley.

#HoCoBlogs

Lives Lived

I took a trip this weekend with a friend of mine.  She was going to the retirement party for an influential college professor from her undergraduate days.  I was along for the ride and to keep her company during the trip.  We had a fair amount of time to talk (driving in a car has a tendency to give you that) and I learned reams about her that I didn’t know before.

I’ve always known her as a very, very bright (impressively so), technologically oriented scientist. What I didn’t know was the path she took to get there.  Actually, while I say path, the reality was that roads had ended and there was no path.  She created a path through obstacles that would have each thwarted lesser motivated, lesser determined people.  In doing so, she became the person I’ve known, and yet the one who hides scars and wounds and damage that most won’t ever see or guess.

During the trip we visited her childhood best friend, one that has been friends with her through all of this.  Down bucolic tree-lined old-style streets we drove until we arrived at a quaint 1920’s bungalow with the biggest, most magnificent ginkgo tree I’ve ever seen.  Her friend, as it turns out, is taking care of a parent who is slowly and painfully dying mentally and physically.  It was a scene of caring, of compassion, of struggle that I have not been witness to in recent years.  My friend helps out where she can, emotionally and financially, despite her own continued problems and challenges.  A friendship of that many years does, I suspect, lends itself to that but it still takes intentionality and commitment.

It struck me how little we know of the struggles that others have gone through, or are going through. It has made me grateful for what I have in a way I haven’t been for a while. Despite what I view/viewed as a life ending divorce and apparent estrangement from progeny, despite never having had a plan or a goal in life–I’ve had it very easy compared to many and done well despite myself.  Too often I fail to appreciate the good, and over emphasize the bad. And while I have become better at giving, at sharing, at empathizing, I could do better. I think, sometimes, that if I can’t give as much as I think I should, I shouldn’t bother.  It’s a perfectionist trap because it creates a lose-lose situation.  What I need to do is continue to slowly stretch the giving muscles, gradually build the overcoming tendons, build the life-endurance strength in me.

Maybe this trip will help me help my friend when she needs it. And whoever else I see that needs help.  Thank God for the eye-opening of the trip.