Inertia

It's time for New Year’s Resolutions:  Do Better.

I have a disease, or maybe it’s a condition. It’s not life-threatening, but its consequences can affect health and welfare.

All three life components can deteriorate with it:

• The brain molders.

• The emotional system downturns.

• The body needs action to prevent muscle and nerve deterioration.

The disease is Inertia. Along with this disease is the obsession of needing to eat.

I have a full slate on my “to-do” list. When I get started, it’s full-out. Keep going until the job is done. There is always a “to-do” list, especially when one owns a house.

My wife didn’t ever have an Inertia problem. She was full-bore when she got out of bed in the morning. It would give me incentive. She didn’t have to remind me of what needed to be done. She knew I would get to it.

I treated Inertia, as long as I can remember, by reading. I could escape reality and responsibility by following the stories weaved between the covers of fiction books. None of that expansion of the brain business. Escape. Fantasize.

My wife is gone. For over a year, my brain and being was numb. I couldn’t read fiction or anything. I couldn’t watch TV, whether it was a network series or sports.

My awareness is returning. I can watch certain programs on TV. I catch myself reading a book and find myself reading the book to the exclusion of my “to-do” list.

A Bluegrass song came on:

One teardrop fell into the river

That’s all that Heaven would allow

With the teardrop came the Blessing

It’s a different river now.

My wife was the teardrop that fell in my river. She was my purpose in living and doing. With her gone, the river has gone dry.

Inertia is claiming me. There is no Princess Charming on a White Horse coming to rescue me. Reality is tough.

There is still a “to-do” list.

I still have a brain, just no alarm clock to propel me out of bed, out of my chair, to productivity.

What I can do now is use my brain and divide my “to-do” list.

• Some things I need help with. This is a separate list.

• Schedule my handyman.

• Get supplies and a list ready. He is expensive.

That worked. Today I went to the store and bought supplies.

Getting out of my chair and out of the house was refreshing. My river started to flow a trickle?

Several “to-do’s” got done today.

I may have to expand the “to-do” degree of difficulty list. Increase the number of those little jobs needing more help. 

I don’t think my handyman is going to be my Princess Charming on a White Horse, but the “to-do” list will get done.

Let me know how you are doing. I care.

Contemplation: What devious methods can be contrived to overcome Inertia?

Sincerely,

Lynn Brooke

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Photo Credit: © 2023 Rachel Gareau