Gratitude & Intentionality – Setting S.M.A.R.T. Daily Goals Through the End of Days

And we will be ready, at the end of every day will be ready, will not say no to anything, will try to stay awake while everyone is sleeping, will not sleep, will make the shoes with the elves, will breathe deeply all the time, breathe in all the air full of glass and nails and blood, will breathe it and drink it, so rich, so when it comes we will not be angry, will be content, tired enough to go, gratefully, will shake hands with everyone, bye, bye, and then pack a bag, some snacks, and go to the volcano—
Dave Eggers, ‘A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius’

So what’s on the agenda today, cave-dwellers?

As someone who is unemployed, with minimal responsibilities to set hours, and sufficient means and capacity to both be full-time nursing disability while also having the wherewithal to attend to my life in a way where I take nothing for granted– I am usually just a messy insomniac stewing in my own filth.

Wait, no. That’s not what I meant to say. I meant, I am getting my shit together. Perpetually. Diligently. With much aplomb, vivacity, style, and verve. So, again, I am going to get on the internet, as I regretfully do most mornings first things, and set intentions rather than immediately dive back into the conversation – aka – the bullshit.

To quote Charlie aka Nuwanda of the Dead Poets Society, where he cuts the dream to its cloud-thin edge and threatens the nightmare of waking to ‘the real world’, as it were –

“Are we just playing around out here, or do we mean what we say? If all we do is come together and read a bunch of poems to each other, What the hell are we doing?”

So, you know, who moved my cheese?, I ask myself as I step from the shower and make some hot cocoa. AKA- How we gon’ fuck it up today?

LET ME COUNT THE WAYS

Keep getting some exercise-

even if you just walk around inside your place, do some chores.

Put on some music.

Record players are amazing because they put to the needle the infinite possibilities of music on a finite, spinning platter that turns and careens beauty into the universe – but requires you to turn it over. I have started using a record a day chosen deliberately as a meditative time for channelling gratitude, trying to focus on things I have and enjoy rather than all that isn’t as I’d like it to be or desire to change. You can use this time to organize your to-do list on your phone, relax, do the dishes.

Try ASMR

on youtube for quiet relaxation. Gentle Whispering Gibi ASMR Atmosphere are a few favorites.

Here is my personal agenda for today:

MUST DO:

Walk / Hydrate

Spend at least an hour writing

Watch the film ‘Blue Sunshine’

IF I HAVE TIME:

Read some of Ray Bradbury’s ‘Zen and the Art of Writing’

Check Publishers Submission Calls

Revise New Poem ‘The Reign of the Mad Queen’

I hope you have a good day and know that good things are on the horizon. Be well. Take it one day, one step at a time.

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