Much of the time I’m able to completely focus on what needs to be done, and I get it done.
The only way out is through, in so many cases.

And then there are the (thankfully brief) times in my life when I have what I refer to as “squirrel brain”. You know, when a dog catches a glimpse of a squirrel and immediately their attention shifts to the squirrel, and then maybe to the shiny object just down the street, and oh, look, something smelly for me to get into!

In other words, my brain is all over the place recently.

That’s not to say that I can’t focus… but sometimes, I feel like I am focusing on the wrong things.

It’s a busy time at work. We have the COVID-19 virus to worry about. I’ve had to cancel 2 trips because of that – and now worry that I won’t be able to use the flight credits within a year (because, honestly, who knows how this thing will look in a year?). The election…and, honestly, the future of our country. My parents’ health and well-being. My relationship. My career – especially my upcoming annual review. Meetings. Interview for staff positions and faculty positions. More meetings.

Sigh.

And on and on it goes. I know that it will end, eventually, but man, it drives me bonkers until it does. I prefer my typically-focused self, and this squirrel brain self? Well, it feels like tight, itchy, underwear, to be honest. You know how when something just doesn’t fit right, and it’s all you can think about? That’s where I am with this.

Trying to get through to the end… and I guess in this case, the only way out really is through.

I have to laugh when random memories pop into my head – without, it seems, any relationship to what I’m doing right now, or reading, or working on. This happens most often with music – a snippet of a long-ago movie soundtrack, or a random 80s song that wanders into my brain (yes, this happened with a Whitney Houston song the other week… I wondered about that one, too).

It makes me wonder what triggers these auditory jumps? I do have a constant internal dialogue going with myself. My brain is hardly ever quiet. Is my brain trying to tell me to stop thinking so hard about whatever I’m pondering? am I trying to distract myself? is there some cue in my thoughts or environment that prompted me to remember the song?

I have no idea. But it makes for an amusing mental soundtrack some days (particularly when I’m in endless meetings).

YouTube and Spotify have made it so easy to revisit the songs of my youth and early adulthood. Just today, I looked up a soundtrack to a movie that I loved in college and watched multiple times with my roommates. Now and Then. About female friendships in the 70s – and then when the girls in the movie grow up. And it had a fabulous soundtrack – seriously, just fabulous.

But roommate #1 owned the soundtrack CD (ha! we’re old…) and I did not. And when we eventually went our separate ways – several years after college, when I left to become a travel nurse – well, obviously she kept the CD. I was never able to find it until this morning – when I discovered that some lovely person on YouTube had uploaded it.

Talk about a fun blast from the past. I plan to blast it this weekend (and probably drive my upstairs neighbor bonkers) and reminisce about the good ol’ days of the mid and late 90s.

I love the opportunity that random memories give me to revisit happy days in the past… which also serves to remind me that a lot of good, and happy days, still happen in the present. Even when the week seems full of endless meetings, and various stressors… the good still happens, the smiles still come.

Josh Radnor, perhaps best known in the States for How I Met Your Mother (the TV show), has a periodic newsletter he sends out. Today’s resonated with me, especially this passage:

There’s no feeling I wish to close myself off to. I’m okay with despair and discontent s long as they’re only part of the story. I’ve no interest in blind optimism wherein I close my eyes and heart to the true suffering in the world. Nor am I interested in lazy, cheap cynicism where I feel the fix is in and change is impossible. I can hold both dark and light, while knowing that the light is going to need a bit more attention, care, and time.

Counteracting that self-critical voice requires daily vigilance. Despair and cynicism are always extending a tempting invitation. But I’ve found the rewards of working those other muscles, of telling myself another story, are immense. It serves as a shield against both individual and collective hopelessness. With hope comes faith and aliveness. And with faith and aliveness comes determination and right thinking. I intuitively know what’s being asked next of me. And there’s an effortlessness in the doing whose byproduct is a new kind of joy, that of being used for a purpose greater than myself.

Patience and humility are two other muscles that could use a bit more attention. And there’s some real relief on the other side of that. For today I don’t have to save the world. Today I don’t have to have all the answers. Today I don’t have to heal all my wounds.

So many random thoughts going through my head… I think it’s time to dump them (in no particular order) out. Otherwise, I won’t have room for any of the innumerable things on the actual to-do list…

• I really need to purge my bookshelves and closet and be ruthless. I have books I’ve owned for years and probably will never read. They’re, well, kind of aspirational reads. I’d LIKE to read them, but I honestly never make the time. I’m probably not going to, to be honest. There are so many newer books I am enjoying, and my reading time is limited as it is.
• But not as limited as it was! Gosh, I love my iBooks app. I can read something while wandering the halls at work, heating up my lunch, riding the bus, etc., and then pick it up again that evening. It’s amazing how many pages you can get through while doing other things that just take a bit of time.
• I think I’m on news overload. I’m obsessed with – and really worried about – the presidential election. I don’t think I can take it if the current wannabe is reelected. I don’t know if our democracy will survive. It’s scary and uncertain and those are two of my least favorite things. 
• Also scary and uncertain? My relationship. Sigh. I need to move forward there but, well, inertia sometimes overtakes me when I don’t want to make a decision fraught with emotion and all sorts of downstream implications. I know it’s not meant to be easy, but.. it’s taking up a lot of brain and emotional space right now. 
• I had a weird stress dream about a guest lecture I’m to give tomorrow. Very weird. I do this all the time – not sure why I’m stressed? 
• I’m ready for spring. The birds are starting to chirp in the morning, which is lovely. Now, time for the sun to come out! 
• I am seriously considering canceling a work trip in a few weeks thanks to coronavirus and the fact that I have to see an immunocompromised family member the next week. I hate to do it, but… I don’t want to spend all this money to attend the meeting and then be worried the whole time – and distracted – because I’m trying not to get sick. 
• There is nothing like a hot cup of tea in the morning. Nothing. Ditto at night. I live for my tea. 
• I also stopped drinking coffee last summer and… I still don’t miss it? Weird. I drank it for years. 

I was so lucky last evening to have a wonderful conversation with someone I consider a friend, a mentor, and even a second mother.

I grew up with this person, best friends with her daughter; our families were always together. We traveled together, slept at each other’s houses all the time, shared Sunday dinners and countless weekend afternoons. This woman treated me like one of her own – from the love to, yes, the punishment when I needed it.

Although I will say that she was the only mom in my life who made me eat pancakes with syrup.

For the record, I really, really dislike syrup. I much prefer powdered sugar on my pancakes, when and if I eat them (which is not often these days…).

So there were quite a few cold pancakes on Saturday mornings in my childhood, since I spent so many Friday nights at their house.

That aside, though, she’s the mom I love most, next to my own. And over time we have become closer, as I’ve drifted from her daughter a bit (let’s just say dissenting political views have made it challenging the last almost-four years…). I have found myself seeking support from this woman and her husband (my second dad) as I’ve navigated through some of the most challenging times in my life. I get cards from them regularly (as in, nearly weekly) and send my own to them nearly as often.

She called, randomly, on Tuesday when I was falling asleep at the end of a long, frustrating, and annoying day. Nothing earth-shattering (although I did break my favorite mug, sigh) but just one of THOSE days. I was nearly asleep so didn’t answer. And then she called again last evening while I was eating, and I took the time to call her when I was finished eating and had my cup of tea.

And it was the best way to spend 30 or so minutes that I could have hoped for. Refreshing, and uplifting, and encouraging. Good conversation with someone who knows all of me – really, she does – and who loves me.

It just reminded me of how important it is to connect, to really talk with people. And to not be afraid to reach out. I hesitate sometimes to call her, or reach out through a card specifically for her, and this reminded me that I don’t need to. True friendship – and true love – takes away that brief hesitation, reminding me that I can be loved for being who I am, for being my whole self.

I needed that this week.