I had to look to see what day it is....

Such is life when things are busy...you have to check to see what day it is. Its a dreary morning, the kind that begs you to find a cozy corner and curl up with a good book. I haven't had much chance to read lately and I miss that. I have only had a few moments here and there to sit and spin the natural blend wool I hope to make a new shawl with. Spring time is so busy for us. Planting the garden, fighting the weeds and grass in the new part of the garden is practically a full time job. We have had the chicks and ducklings to care for and all the hospital visits too.

Although I would dearly love a curled up with a book sort of day, instead I told Emery I would help him out by seeding the front lawn and then I need to prepare for some more chicks. Yes, I know its not always a favorable subject, but we are raising some chickens for meat. If I am going to eat some chicken, I would rather raise my own than buy from the store where you have no idea what they were fed and how inhumanly they were raised.

After all that is done, its time to cultivate the garden which is about 1,200 sq feet. Who needs to jump on the treadmill today ! I am having a far greater workout just working : )

The wisteria is still blooming and filling the yard with a delicate fragrance that calls you to go closer to the blooms and breath in the sweetness. My iris are starting to bloom too, rich purple, the kind of purple for a kings royal robes. When I am outside, working, its easy to pray. You feel the presence of God...He is not drowned out by busy-ness or man made noise. Speaking of man made noise,

I saw something the other day about how businesses are starting to change the way they do things in regard to having lap tops at meetings and having folks leave their cell phones turned off. People seem to be having a problem concentrating, attention is divided and not focused.

They have a name for this condition "CPA" "continuous partial attention n. A state in which most of one's attention is on a primary task, but where one is also monitoring several background tasks just in case something more important or interesting comes up. Also: CPA. "

Word Spy

We all know someone with the condition and frankly when I read this, it hit too close to home.

"Continuous partial attention is that state most of us enter when we're in front of a computer screen, or trying to check out at the grocery store with a cellphone pressed to an ear — or blogging the proceedings of a conference while it's underway. We're aware of several things at once, shifting our attention to whatever's most urgent — perhaps the chime of incoming e-mail, or the beep that indicates the cellphone is low on juice. It's not a reflective state.—Scott Kirsner, "Are your feeds turning into too many long tails? Filter!." The Boston Globe, June 27, 2005

Ouch, I spend much of my thinking and doing into trying to translate it into a blog entry and listening for that chime of incoming mail.

Right now I should be out doing the work I listed above but here I sit, in the glow of the computer screen, clicking away at the keyboard, lecturing myself about how I should be outside in the wonder of nature. Questioning.....do I have CPA ?