Community Building

Good morning. 

I'm up early to volunteer at an elementary school setting up for a book fair. The school is primarily refugees and immigrants and they're trying to establish a PTA. Right now they need community help and I'm connected with the woman who is heading the project. 

Then it's home to work the to-do list and wait for a windshield repair. A truck peppered me with stones on the way home from Asheville -- 3 cracks/dings. Nice small 6 hour window -- geez, but I'll get time to finish up some household stuff. 

I didn't pick a new book because I have 2 library ones "in-transit" so hopefully coming today. 

I signed up for another hike at the same park as last weekend. When I hiked on Tuesday, I was chatting with the hike leader and she made a comment that she hadn't hiked there in a while. Guess what?? She put a hike on for Sunday. Year pass paid for itself now :) It's a bit tight since the kids are coming over for opening weekend for football, but I'm going to make it work. 

My garden is just so-so. I'm not sure the peas are sprouting. They may have been disturbed from the irrigation installation. I might add a few more seeds today. The greens are growing though. 

I had a tiny epiphany about some of my friend "issues" -- hard to explain, but I'm going to experiment with it a little. It "worked" twice and maybe this is the (obvious) secret sauce. Everyone else is probably, like duh, but it's something I needed to learn. Again, it's hard to explain the nuance, but the general drift is do what I want and don't get sucked into their reactions. Basic, right?

When I say do what I want, I don't mean be selfish or bratty. When I say don't get sucked into their reactions, I mean the kind of reactions that are passive-aggressive or manipulative or snarky. 

What this means is I show up HAPPY and not passive-aggressive or snarky or game playing as MY reaction to THEIR reaction. I don't get sucked into that loop. Confusing, I know. And it doesn't mean they "get away with it" because I always get to decide the "what I want" to do. But this way when I do what I want, it's from a good place. When I show up in the friendship it's loving and nice -- not game playing in the sandbox.

Basically, my issue has been with ME. My reaction. My hackles up. Work in progress.

Anyway, you know more to come. It's something that's a hard reach for me. 

I feel myself heading down the ramble hole again so I'll stop here. Hope you have a good day. Later gators.