The Experiment - Day 2

Today is day 2 of a week when my daughter Rebecca provides me with daily tasks that I must perform (see yesterday's post). I'm happy to report that I completed yesterday's tasks:

I spent about a half hour at the fish pond. The first 10 minutes were spent clearing away the cover of these little micro water plants so I could see the fish. At first, they were excited to get some sunlight. They sucked away at the edge of the pond, happy to have some nutrients stirred up. They then settled down and idly swam about, disappearing under the water plants and reappearing again. I decided to go get my camera to document their activity. Once the lens was pointed at them, they got more timid. It must have looked like a giant owl's eye to them, so they kept their distance.

Being out there with the fish helped me slow down, and I also enjoyed watching the butterflies and bees working the sedum blooms next to the pond. It's amazing that a few minutes outdoors with nature can be so therapeutic!

I went to the used book store and swapped some of my older books for new ones. I scoured the Literature section, but most of the books I was drawn to weren't thematically "dreadful", (as Rebecca cautioned against), but they weren't the antithesis of dreadful, either.

I picked up a Larry McMurtry novel about Billy the Kid, which doesn't end well. Then Mark Twain's "Roughing It", which isn't exactly fiction. So I went to the best-seller section and found a book that I think meets the spirit of Rebecca's intention: Tom Holt's "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages". The chuckles started with the title, continued with the synopsis on the back and the first few pages of the book!

I decided for myself that I should also consider all my online reading, so for the next week, I will try to avoid dreadful articles on the internet. I've already succumbed to a few, but I will at least make the effort to read less of them - and forget about the dreadful behavior of Rick Perry, Serena Williams, et al.

Now for today's tasks:

I woke up at 5am with bad allergies today, so Rebecca was accordingly merciful with her list. I shouldn't have any trouble playing my fiddle for 30 minutes. And while I play, I'll remind myself that I'm pretty good at it, rather than focus on the flaws in my playing.

Task #2 should be fun, too. I'll imagine myself being swirled into the Fibonacci vortex of a rose, or cascading into the folds of a Georgia O'Keefe painting. I'll bet it smells good deep down in there!

And Rebecca probably didn't intend for this to be a task, but I think I'll take to heart the pre-printed text at the top of the paper that says "Believe In Yourself". Perhaps I'll meditate on that concept a bit!

And I'll read more of my new novel for a few more yuks.

I'll tell you tomorrow how today's tasks went!