Lessons learned

Today has been a day of lessons learned.

As part of my work day, I attended a luncheon that featured a panel of women who provided advice for other women working in our field.  All four panelists are people that I know and have worked with in one aspect of our jobs or another.  It was especially fun to hear them talk about their career paths and perspectives on being busy women leaders.

Two of the panelists spoke about the importance of focus.

Lesson number one.  Focus.

After reheating my cup of tea for the third time tonight, I decided to sit down and actually enjoy it.  It was a great chance to catch up on some of my favorite blogs and get some perspective on the day.  (I also put water on to boil for dinner and forgot about it for several extra minutes while I got distracted by e-mail.  Hmmm....focus.)

Enter lesson number two.  Don't read sad things when you are feeling kind of sad from the start.  This equation equals tears.  This story, from one of my favorite bloggers, will help with perspective.  The perspective was worth the tears.

I was feeling kind of guilty about staying inside with the temperatures so mild.  We actually had rain this morning - a glorious, slow and steady rain.  

Why stay inside?  My husband was still at work and the dogs needed some time to run.  Truthfully, I felt like the alpacas were staring me down, especially Magellan.

I mean, how can you ignore that face?

 The dogs had some time to run and get into mischief.  The only way I can get a picture of Joey is to give him a rawhide treat.  Though, he will growl at me, Cy (our other dog), and a shadow if he thinks you are getting close enough to take his rawhide away.

 The dogs also got into the garden which is off-limits because they are tomato thieves.  They do look guilty, don't they.

Lesson number three:  Get your thoughts together before opening your mouth.  This is the time of year when I most need to practice patience and a balanced approach.  I dropped the ball on that one today.  The good news is that I am sure I will have a lot more situations this week during which I can practice.