4 things past, 4 to come
Jen Robinson, NYC Teacher, and Cloudscome all tagged me for the 8 Things Meme, where you have to list 8 odd things about yourself. Since I have a problem keeping any of my oddness a secret, you guys already know practically everything to date. So I was relieved to see this modification by Cloudscome:
“My new meme is called ‘4 New x 2′. You have to share four things that were new to you in the past four years. I mean four things you learned or experienced or explored for the first time in the past four years. New house, new school, new hobby, new spouse, new baby, whatever. Then you have to say four things you want to try new in the next four years.”
I have to go outside the four years just a bit for my first one, but here we go:
1. My touchstone for bravery is a trip I took to Iceland five years ago. Before that I was afraid of small boats, big water, small planes, and foreign travel. But I made a decision a month ahead of time that I was simply not going to be afraid. I could be afraid after the trip, but not before or during. I just flipped a switch. So not only did I backpack with my husband in this burly, remote, fairly dangerous Icelandic wilderness, but I also traveled by small boat across incredibly choppy seas, flew across the Atlantic, flew across Iceland in a small plane, and never batted an eye at any of it.
It taught me that fear is a choice. So now when I have something challenging ahead of me, I try to catch myself early and make the choice not to be afraid.
For example, I have this book coming out in August . . .
2. I got an agent and sold two books. Now that’s pretty new!
3. I discovered Ethiopian food, and now must have it at least once a week.
4. As of the day before yesterday, I am now on MySpace. And because of my basically Amish ways, I’m still trying to figure it all out, so if any of you are on MySpace and want to friend me, please take the initiative. Otherwise I may be stuck at eight friends all my life.
And now for the future. In the next four years I would like to try:
1. Swimming with dolphins. Despite my general dislike for the ocean (because, obviously, there are sharks), I would be willing to set aside my fear once again just to feel a slick gray snout against my face. We have a photo of my stepdaughter with a dolphin who’s doing just that. I think that would be such an incredible Life Moment.
2. Going on a really long backpacking trip. Usually my limit is five days, what with the general grime level–I love being outdoors, but after five days a shower is just too alluring. But I think just once I’d like to be out maybe twice that long, and really see what it’s like to experience that much time in nature. I think it could be really wonderful. Plus by the end my butt and thighs would be as hard as concrete.
3. Dog sledding. Not with Bear (sorry, buddy), but maybe at one of those dog sledding camps in Alaska. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
4. Being a real athlete. Years ago I read this book by Bill McKibben called Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously, about how McKibben decided to devote one year to training as a competitive cross-country skier. He said until then he’d been “tempted by deep commitment but afraid of the effort and pain. The same on a ski trail and in front of a keyboard and on my knees in church. Three-quarters of the way there in everything I did.” I can so relate to that. I’m very aware of my own partial commitment to so many things in my life that I claim are important to me.
I get the same urge to test my body whenever I watch the Olympics. You see what the human body is capable of. Sure, those people train for hours and hours every day, and I’m not saying I’d be willing to give up my writing or other important aspects of my life to get there, but I am saying it would be interesting to see what this little body of mine is capable of when I really decide to take it further. Just something I’m curious about. We’ll see.
Whew! That list wasn’t as easy as you think. So now it’s my turn to pass it on to eight more people. You can either go with the original meme–list 8 odd things about yourselves–or go with the amended meme of 4 X 4.
So many of my fellow bloggers have already been tagged, but I think these people are still free:
Barry
Patrick
Liz
Miri
Lady T
Bookseller Chick
Little Willow
Heather
Do you best, guys, then if you feel like it, tag eight more.
Technorati Tags: 8 Things Meme
May 31st, 2007 at 6:24 am
It actually costs $15 to tag me, but I like you and I’ll let it slide this time.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:00 am
Oh, I like this 4 new things one, etc. I’ll be on it when I get back from Book Expo
May 31st, 2007 at 7:18 am
Wow Robin. Dogsledding does sound very cool. I bet you would love the Iron Man challenges.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:27 am
I’ll have to think about mine. I’ll probably post it this weekend.
And now you have nine friends.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:08 am
It may be awhile before I can respond to the tag here,since I have a family event to go to over the weekend,today is my mom’s birthday and tomorrow,I’ll be running around at BEA.
Your four new things are cool,Robin-the newest thing I’ve done this week is to try Snapple’s new Red Tea drink. It’s pretty good,not too sweet.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:21 am
Does the switch-flipping mechanism work against seasickness, as well as fear? ‘Cause when you described the small-boat-choppy-waters thing, THAT’S what I’d fear.
Seriously, though, I’m impressed that you were able to conquer so many phobias in one go. Sounds like quite a trip!
May 31st, 2007 at 8:25 am
Heather, thank you for friending me! Also thanks HipWriterMama (a.k.a. Vivian)! I feel better already.
Eisha, I forgot to mention the seasickness part. It TOTALLY worked for that. Up until then I’d be on Dramamine any time I even came near a dock. I just decided I wasn’t seasick anymore. So cool.
Lady T and Liz, have fun at BEA! Say hi to Barry. He’ll be there signing his new book, Boy Toy, which is so hot it’s going to scorch the hair right off people’s eyeballs. It’s also a literary masterpiece, IMHO.
Patrick, I’ll hit PayPal this morning.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:31 am
That was very informative =)
I have a #5 you can add for things to do in the future… visit the NEW Harry Potter theme park in Orlando in 2009!!!! That’s right! Harry Potter is getting a park! I’m making a pilgrimage =)
P.S. I just friend requested you =)
May 31st, 2007 at 8:33 am
You’re one of my “top friends” now.
And I really am going to think hard about this meme. Loved the one about fear and I especially loved Bill’s quote.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:37 am
This will be hard for me as I haven’t done anything for four years. I’ve been on Space Lord vacation.
And Robin, isn’t it obvious that you are really aiming toward becoming a Space Lord? But seriously, winning the Iditarod like I did when I was eight, doesn’t make you a Space Lord.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:57 am
Heather, thank you!
Christen, I saw that you friended me. Thanks a lot! And I really love the photo of you in your (grad school) graduation gown. What a happy day!
Patrick, as if. I know my highest aspiration can only be Space Minion. You’ve got this locked up.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:01 am
I saw this great shirt when I was in Alaska! “Alaska: Where men are men and women win the Iditarod”! I think you could win, Robin!
May 31st, 2007 at 9:48 am
By the way, thanks to all of you who’ve friended me this morning and left comments. As soon as I can figure out how to post my own comments on there I’ll say something.
Sigh. Am I the only one who doesn’t automatically meld with machines?
May 31st, 2007 at 10:00 am
Seriously great list, Robin.
As to fear: For you, it was Iceland. For me, it was taking a drawing class. Your story is way more dramatic, but I think I learned some of the same things. I think you don’t defeat Fear—you learn to let it walk along with you. (OMG, that sounds so Dancing with Wolves.)
Except…I really wish I’d dared to be a nude life model for the other class…the figure drawing one. I was SO curious to see what being part of the art making process felt like, and I wouldn’t have cared HOW they drew me, but I couldn’t get over some body issues. But then again, a lot of those models were in their 60’s/70’s, so there’s still time.
As to your future #4, I’d like to discuss that with you. How do you know when you’ve given your 100% rather than a lousy 75%? When the judges give you a perfect ‘10′? When your heart rate monitor explodes? When you barf as you cross the finish line? I love to challenge myself, too, but we need to delve into the motivations behind all this strenuous striving…Over wine (or electrolytes if you’re training) at LA? I’m still hoping you’ll come!
May 31st, 2007 at 10:20 am
Robin,
There are 10 kinds of people in the world–
–Those who understand binary and those who don’t.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:20 am
You can’t comment back on your own site. You have to go to each individual site and comment someone back. At the bottom of the comment section you click “Add comment”. Hope this helps…
May 31st, 2007 at 10:28 am
Christen, you just saved me hours of frustration. I kept clicking “Add comment” and it told me I wasn’t my own friend, and I just couldn’t accept that because, you know, I do think of myself as a friend, and so I gave up and went out for Starbucks.
Then I came back and you had the answer for me! Thank you!
Patrick, ha.
Sara, first of all, that is SO cool that you would even consider being a nude life model. You are way braver than I could ever be in that regard. And I love the idea of you keeping that in mind for when you’re in your 60s/70s. Yow!
Second, that 75% thing isn’t just about physical effort, it’s about everything in my life. I think you can just feel where you are. In some areas I know I give around 85%, which is pretty good for me, and in some I’m at about 60%. When I’m backpacking I’m at 95% in all areas–physical, spiritual, mental–because I’m using my body the way I love, carrying a huge pack and grinding up mountains; I’m letting my brain relax and just enjoy whatever thoughts come; and I’m giving my soul some much-needed quiet time in nature.
Sitting here right now, I’d say I’m at an average of about 80% today. Just feeling that way.
Do you understand what I mean?
May 31st, 2007 at 11:35 am
Those “older” women were amazing. Although I heard some of them handled modeling by simply falling asleep!
I understand what you mean a bit more about the 75%…maybe it’s more like being present in the moment than striving? Is that what 100% feels like? For me, I have a perverse reaction to the “give it your all” motto. I do better with the “let’s see where today takes us” approach, and then I go higher, much higher than planned. It’s like I have to keep my goal secret, even from myself. Oprah would not like that.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Sara, it’s good to make me talk through my terms. A lot of times I don’t know what I really think until I have to write it or say it out loud.
What I’m talking about isn’t striving. It’s not effort. It’s commitment. It’s honestly knowing in my heart whether I’m giving myself to something. So yes, it’s an issue of being in the moment (still a hard one for me), but it’s also about giving up fear, giving up resistance, and saying yes, I hereby commit to this person, this love, this job, this lunch I’m having with a friend, this whatever is in front of me.
And so when I’m sitting here and I know I’m at 80% in this moment, it means I’m committing to my life more than I do some days, less than I do others. It’s not a criticism, just an observation.
It’s also an opportunity to do more. Which is why I’m about to stop sitting here and go outside and sit on my porch and listen to the baby bird hiding in a nest near my garden. I think sitting there and listening to him cheep his little guts out so his parents will bring him more food may just bring me up to 90%.
May 31st, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Okay, the baby bird and I just had a lovely time communing, and now this is what my cleared-up brain wants to say:
Think about your writing career. You know in your heart how committed to it you are. You know whether you’re holding back some part of yourself for whatever reason–fear of rejection, fear of fame, fear of this or that. (And I don’t mean you, Sara, I mean “you” as in me or any of us.)
So knowing yourself as you do, you also know what it would take to make you fully commit your heart. It might mean deciding not to be afraid of any of it. It might mean deciding right now, May 31, 2007, that you love writing so much you will do it all the rest of your life, and you will also never give up doing what it takes to get your books out there in readers’ hands. So you send out queries to agents, and never give up. You send out queries to editors, and never give up. And once success finds you, you don’t shrink away from it or discount it or try to sabotage yourself in any way. You feel grateful for it, and you go on to the next book and the next one.
That would be 100%, in my opinion. Pure love, pure commitment. And that’s just in one aspect of my life. Think of how it would feel to do that about everything.
May 31st, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Four new things I’ve done in the past four years:
- Moved
- Changed jobs/locations
- Lost two beautiful cats to illness
- Been in a professional musical production
Four things I’d like to do in the next four years:
- Have a featured role in a film or television show (bonus if I’ve written the screenplay or script)
- Write, record, and release an album (original lyrics and music)
- Publish and stage my plays
- Complete a novel and get it published
May 31st, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Hmm, I’m gonna have to think about this one. But I’ll figure it out by the weekend, I think.
On Myspace, if you have any questions you can ask me (I’m smack in the middle of the culture it’s created) but I’ll be avoiding the site itself. I have a, um, deep emotional aversion to those sites after something really nasty that happened last year.
May 31st, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Oo, Miri, I don’t like the sound of that. Yikes.
Little Willow, I’m so sorry about the cat part. That’s really hard. But I love your 4 going forward. Good luck with all of those!!
May 31st, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Robin, I love the way you get people inspired. You absolutely rock.
Little Willow, You are one talented amazing lady!
May 31st, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Vivian, same to you!
May 31st, 2007 at 6:38 pm
See you on myspace, Robin! Finally!
May 31st, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Thanks, Robin and Vivian.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Laura, that’s so cool that your character has her own MySpace account! I can see I have much to learn. Heather’s been helping me, too. And Christen. Thanks for the offer for even more help, Miri. I may need it.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I have a suggestion for you, Robin. You should consider doing the Appalachian Trail hike from Mt. Katahdin in Maine to Georgia. There are way stations for showers, cleanup and hot meals all along it, and the occasional B&B/deli/restaurant/motel in towns the trail goes through. The trail rides the Appalachian Ridge all the way through all those states and the parts of it I’ve been on are breathtaking. And since I only live 10 miles from the trail you’ll have ONE friend along the way! And what a book it would make (actually it’s already made one, but yours would be quite a bit different, I think.)
There’s quite a cult surrounding through hikers. They’re a different breed.
http://www.trailplace.com/portal/index.php
This week I’m just too stressed to get to it (I’m a vendor at a bluegrass festival right UNDER the AT for four days!) but I’m planning on creating a myspace page for greenspeak to troll for new members. Hopefully by the time I get around to it, you’ll be an old hand at it and be able to give me some pointers.
June 4th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
BJ, that’s a really cool idea. I’ll have to cogitate on that.