An ideal homemaker is devoted to the great career in which she is engaged. She is a professional in her field by being a homemaker every day and letting devotion and sense of duty, rather than her moods, dominate her. ~Daryl V. Hoole, The Art of Homemaking, 1967
I’ve had a sinus headache since yesterday afternoon. A big part of me wanted to just crawl back into bed and surf the Internet all day or read. Instead, I’ve played the “just 30 minutes” mind game with myself all day: “I’ll just do X for 30 minutes and then I’ll call it a day.” And, after I finished X, I went on to Y, and then Z. Despite not feeling 100%, I’ve been able to get a lot accomplished today–I think I’ve been through the alphabet twice already!
Coach Wooden would say that my “conditioning” paid off today. I’m not totally clear about his underlying meaning (perhaps you can clarify it for me, Ann?) but my understanding is that we keep pushing our physical, emotional, and spiritual boundaries out further and further so that we can increase our stamina in those areas.
In my pre-modern retro woman days, I would have gone to bed with a cold compress if I broke a fingernail (okay, maybe not that bad, but it didn’t take much). Today, I’m being respectful of my body but also letting my mind know that it isn’t going to get a day off.
And you know what? That same mind that was being rather cranky that it wasn’t going to get a day off is feeling rather proud of what it was able to accomplish today. I guess sometimes the mind doesn’t always know what it really wants.
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I do the same thing. I tell myself… “Just do one more thing.” Then, when I get done with that, I say, “Now, just do one more thing.” It’s a great mind trick!
Welcome, Emily! Isn’t it amazing what we can trick our minds into doing?
Dr. Julie – I really really feel for you! I hope you feel better soon! I have been getting chronic sinus infections for the past couple of years. I never had allergies, and then when I moved to the east coast, it all started. Never had allergies as a kid. In fact right now I am on a 30 day regimine of antibiotic and am on claritin – but I have not succomed to Nasonex though. Going back to “Self Care”, I think if were more disciplined to drink enough water, kept my house cleaner, used saline sprays more, etc. it would help.
I am a total wimp. I consider my sinus headaches completely debilitating – so this must be one of my very weakest spots as a “Modern Retro Woman”, help me Daryl! help me Coach!
Ann…Neti pots. They look crazy but they really do work. I bought the pot at Whole Foods and I get the saline packets at Walgreens. When I arrived at UCLA, my MD (a faculty member from the med school, no less), decided that I’d probably had a low grade sinus infection for about five years. I’d been on so many rounds of antibiotics that I was getting rebound or secondary infections. She suggested sinus douching with a gizmo straight out of the 1930s. The pharmacist suggested I go the neti pot route. I still get the infections but they are not nearly as debilitating as they used to be. Saline sprays only moisturize. The sinus rinse really rinses out the sinuses.
I think this post dovetails so nicely with the one previous, “You can’t be a man.” I agree. I am not a man, I can’t be a man, I don’t want to be a man. But — some of us want to make it in a man’s world, and we can’t do it by being wimps. The part that wants to wimp out has to improve. And I agree — we do have to keep pushing those boundaries. I call it “enlarging my tent.” We all have to keep doing this. Even age does not excuse us.
It has taken courage to write this. You (anyone) might not agree.
Kathy, you are brilliant! As I read your comment, I was thinking that this is an example of what I love about our little community of women–we help each other see connections we hadn’t made before.
You’re absolutely right. When I was in higher education, I was playing in a man’s world. I was most powerful when I was authentically a woman but I certainly wasn’t a wimp! I knew what I wanted and went after it (and got it).
Thank you for the very good reminder!