Life is Good
I should be heading to bed, but am still jazzed from a fun evening tennis drill. I haven’t been a member of a tennis club for several years, and while I still manage to play a fair amount of tennis, I rarely have an opportunity for an instructional drill. Today I got an email asking me to sub in a drill tonight with a group of strong, younger players and a pro. Hell yea!
Steve, our drill pro is 6’8″ and (of course) is a fabulous player – so we took turns with him as our partner and played out several point scenarios. There were a couple times I thought my partner or I had hit a winner and I stopped playing, turning around away from the net confident that the point was over… BUT (while I wasn’t looking) Steve had raced to the ball and returned it, leaving my partner to cover the whole court herself, since I had already checked out of the point. Eventually I got it in my brain that this wasn’t my normal group of over 45 and under 5’7″ tennis ladies, and got into a faster paced groove.
Last night was also a fun evening–it was book club night with a subset of our usual crew. It was a subset because we had an unusual number of last-minute cancellations. Despite the no-shows and the fact that only one of us managed to read whole book (no one liked it–maybe that’s why so many people cancelled), we had a great time. We even came up with a name (actually 2 names) We are torn between the The Literary Lushes or The Literary Luscious.
We talked a bit about the nature of worrying, and how it is generally not a productive use of time and can be counter-productive. Pat (poet, avid reader and frequent commenter on this blog) shared a great technique for managing worry: set aside 1-2 time slots a day to worry. That way throughout the day, you can defer your worries, since you have a designated time for them. When it is ‘worry time’, you set a timer, fret away for the designated timeframe; and when the buzzer goes off – you can get on with your day worry free (until the next time).
I have another friend who told me, years ago: We have a lot to think about, but nothing to worry about. It’s one of my favorite sayings. A few years ago I had the pleasure of working with a number of Brits, and I picked up their phrase “No Worries”, which has been a useful addition to my vocabulary.
Tonight – I am worry-free, happy, content, and (now) tired. Sweet dreams all.