double batch of chocolate chip scones
Mixed 12:30
Baked 1pm
Gave to several twenty-somethings holding signs for food, downtown
I’m heading to France in just three days. I’m launching a reading program, hosting a birthday party tomorrow, my husband is out of town and my daughter is in the middle of a run of nine-straight days of opera rehearsal. Tomorrow’s the first performance. I need to write a newsletter, curl my daughter’s hair into ringlets, (every day–and it takes forever!) and put together the party bags. Oh, and clean! I don’t do well when I’m terribly busy. I shut down.
So, yesterday at 4pm I did just that. I had so many things on my list that I became crippled and sat on the kitchen floor, barefoot and in jeans and a cozy sweater, and cleaned the fronts of all my cabinets. I just sat there, for hours, spraying and wiping and monitoring each square inch of painted white. Finally, at 7pm, with the youngest already sleeping, I went to bed, too. I just lay there, a still-dressed lump, until I peeled my body out of bed at 9:30pm to collect my daughter from rehearsal.
Today the race began yet again, but with even less time and more to do. I knew I needed a strategy or I’d end up cleaning some other unimportant furniture item. Knowing my tendency to shut down when overwhelmed I decided all day long that I’d drive in the slow lane and only try to do one thing at a time. No multi-tasking. No eating while typing, or calling while driving, or gardening while hot-air ballooning. Better to leave something undone, than do everything poorly–or have to do it twice–don’t you hate that?!
So, with this strategy of Slow I’ve been able to make some strides forward. I even had a chance to bake a double batch of scones today, taking half to my son’s school for a performance tonight, giving the other half to folks holding signs downtown. We delivered them to several young gypsies who probably haven’t had warm scones in a while. Who definitely don’t look like they’re bothered by lists and getting things done. Maybe they’ve hit the wall, too, like I did yesterday. Maybe they just feel like cleaning cabinet fronts. I don’t know.
Funny, that. I guess I was too busy to ask.
Shame on me…
The Woman and the Wheat 
Good for you, and lucky for them. Sounds like a symbiotic relationship all around. Now it’s time to go be a Garacochea. I’m sure you will return with many new insights into bread and life!
Candace–I’m wondering if writing serves the same purpose for you, as it does for me. Besides writing being a creative outlet–writing has always been for me the one place where my brain finally engages in a deeper, more reflective manner, allowing me to see myself and the world around me in a different light.
The post above is a perfect example.
So, here I was busy, making scones, wanting to do something nice for someone, pleased that some extra time opened up in my day, and excited that by practicing going slow I might not only finish the many things in front of me, but also set an example for others who also get caught up and lost in the rush.
But as I sat, writing, reflecting on the day, I realized that yet again I had missed maybe the one important piece of the puzzle that would indeed get me out of myself and help me change… that I had been thinking about me and my scones and not about that person, that very real and hurting person that I was giving the scones to. I was stunned, as I sat here at the computer, that I hadn’t even asked their names, or stayed long enough to hear a small snippet of their story.
If I hadn’t sat and typed that short little piece out, I would have continued in the thought that I had somehow been a brave and mighty conqueror that day, when indeed I completely missed the mark…
Anyway, you’ve always seemed a thoughtful and reflective person outside of your writing, so perhaps it’s not the same for you! But for me, it seems to be one of the only ways for me to grow up. Better keep at it. Don’t want to be a toddler forever 🙂 love you…
Wish I was a “gypsy” in Santa Barara! I’m sure your cabinet fronts look amazing, and just think how long it will be before you will actually have to put that task on a list.:) Even in “SLOW” your are wonderwoman. Have a fantastic trip.
Mmmm, those scones sound and look so yummy, yummy, yummy! I haven’t baked in forever, luckily, Anna, our resident baker, has picked up the slack. She just made some gingerbread men tonight. Though we decorated some of them as girls! 🙂
Have a wonderful time in France. Can’t wait to hear all about it!
Ringlets? Is it for the opera, or are you just THAT nice of a mama that you do it ’cause she likes it?