Hey there Family:

So I had it that today is Saba's birthday, but I might be a day off. For his eulogy, which I never delivered but virtually, I had it that he was born when Channukah's candles were shining brightest. He would have been ninety.

I am thinking that the people who live the longest are those who suck the most out of life. This is inspired by Molly Cummings Minot Cook, a bunch of whose tools, and a desk, I bought at an online auction. So I've thought about her, and wonder if she would have been the type of person to waste her time on such a thing as an estate auction when there is so much more important stuff to be done in the world.

But then what's important. For her, she was a big gardener. Maybe her tools, and wondering about legacies, are part of my garden.

I spent Wednesday afternoon/evening/night squeezing a door frame so that a door would close and open better (thanks it part to Ms. Cook's tools), setting up her desk (my basement office, picture above, and programming some of the phones on the phone system, and enjoy these things. But then there is often an “I should be doing other things.”

And that was Thursday. I didn't arrange for the driveway to be plowed figuring it's not that big, and I could shovel it. And I might have done so if I'd got out there at six inches, and come again when the snow was over.

Instead, I took a walk with my camera in the snow and cold for two or three hours (and took the picture for Lani's warehouse that I posted over at Ilan.red yesterday. And then I slept really well (I got up at 8:39), and prayed, and then I went out to shovel.

And it was good, and then it was too much, because other things are more important. And if I'd just sucked it up and bought the snow-blower I wanted to at the pawn shop a month ago, I'd have made quick work of the driveway, but it had a minor defect (I could have easily addressed), and I was like “Who needs it. I've never had one before.” And it's not the machine I need, but the time that is too precious, and I wasted too much.

So I guess it's a question of gardens, and maybe weeds. In the end, it's what I cultivate that grows: I should choose to cultivate the right things, and not get lost in the weeds, or the weeding, or someone else's garden, though a sojourn there can be nice.

Distraction, procrastination, or is it diversion and entertainment, or is it just the spin we put on it.

Yesterday, maybe this morning, I was looking for a graphic Ilan had sent me. I checked my e-mail, and an e-mail from Staples was there. I opened it. That is another's garden, or maybe one of those poison berries. Staples apparently has a bunch of chairs on sale, and I can admit my office chair has the bottom falling out, or I suspect the springs or under support have failed. I could use it long yet as it is, but it's pretty damned ugly. But the point is it took me off course.

The course was to find a graphic to get my business card done as I'd just come up with a New Year's card, and want to visit Lenny already (dammit!). But then I spent too much time on the New Year's postcard.

I think what I need is a list of trusty vendors, or a projects manager who can put all these things together for me. I have way more ideas than I can execute on my own. So someone I can give my card design idea to, who can hand it off to the right service person without my having to worry about it. Or the website design, or the funnel design, or . . . . You get the point.

Maybe save some things for therapy, vacuuming, the occasional ironing, but maybe not all the ironing. Fixing the lamp (forty years old probably, and from a special person; the lamp hasn't been well in a long time, the person long dead; it only needed two screws) complete with the smoke stains and smell.

Maybe get into dictating my correspondence and have it come back pretty, and not have to mess with it.

I suppose it's about learning what to let go, and where to play. I think that's the frame for your warehouse too, Ilan.

It's about knowing when to pull the occasional weed, and when to give the weeding over to a gardener.

So that's what I'm working on. And with the practice the same. I'm still exploring how that will look.

So that's my thought for now.

And a beautiful week to all of you. Be safe while your momma is gone. And have fun, and learn something, and find a way to put a smile on another person's face, and maybe one on yours will follow.