Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

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recent posts

  • Whaddaya mean I need a plan?

    In a burst of hopeful enthusiasm that befalls me every January, I decided to name the year 2012 as the year of finishing. I thought it would help me get stuff done. But I cleverly didn’t specify what I would be finishing in 2012, and now here I am halfway through February and I have finished nothing in particular.

    So I guess if I’m going to finish something, I’d better make a dang list.

    Things to finish in 2012:

    My third novel (third draft close to done so this is in fact doable)

    The mosaic window sills in the house remodel that will never end (four of seven completed so this is also doable)

    Two free-lance magazine stories (two legitimate ideas and the research on one completed so this is also doable)

    Lose 20 pounds. (This is my perpetual never accomplished goal, probably doable in some alternate universe where I have actual willpower)

    OK. There’s my starter list.

    Now I just need a schedule. But first, I must nap.

  • February blooms

    I planted hellebore to see something blooming in the garden in February. This little guy fills the bill. And any day now, the daphne with its tiny intoxicating blossoms will kick in, too, and I will suddenly want to be outdoors again. Having grown up in places where winter covers everything with snow and blooming things disappear from sight for months, I still can’t believe my good fortune to have my way to Oregon. I’ll take the winter rain, thanks.

  • The now of dishes

    If you save the dishes until later because the now of dish washing is a drag, the later of dish washing will be even worse because you will be rushing to get them done half an hour before your friends arrive at the door and you want those friends to think you are not the sort of person who leaves the dishes undone. So that later will be all stressed and anticipating the future stress, you make now less fun because you’d rather be vegetating to an old “Doctor Who” episode than washing dishes. This whole business of living in the moment is fraught.