Head in the Clouds

Hiking at the Last Minute

I was mad at myself the other day as I drove to the trailhead. It had been a gloriously sunny afternoon, but here I was heading out for my daily hike as the sun was setting behind the foothills and a few drop of rain were starting to fall.

It wasn’t the first time I’d procrastinated on hitting the trail. I often find myself slipping in a hike just before dark. And kicking myself for missing out on a dose of sunshine.

But check out what I saw on my last-minute hike. (Blog post continues below.)

Rainbow over snow

Trees at sunset

Cool clouds

Clouds in puddle

Dramatic clouds

Totally spectacular clouds plus moon

Seems like my last-minute hike should be a metaphor for something: Like, wow, look how great it is to procrastinate! Um, no. I think it’s something more like this: If you’ve procrastinated, don’t give up. Jump in and do what you can with the time you have left. You might end up with something even better than you dreamed of. 

Procrastinating about Donating?

Here's an embarrassing confession: When I did a big home-office cleanup recently, one of the things I found, buried in piles of paper, was a stuffed UNICEF box from a couple Halloweens ago. I was never in danger of mistaking the money for my own. But UNICEF could have put it to good use long ago.

Weeks after I found it, though, the box was still sitting around, because I kept forgetting to have my daughter count the money. But the earthquake in Haiti gave me a sense of urgency. I had her count the cash a couple days ago, and I've donated the sum online, plus a bit extra. A little bit of help for Haiti. And one more undone task off my shoulders. 

When the earthquake first hit, I wanted to donate something myself right away. People were e-mailing and tweeting and sharing on Facebook the names of effective charities working in Haiti.  But it was a lot of names, and I was in danger either of spending way too much time researching who to give my small donation to or of procrastinating and not doing a thing.

A phrase I'd learned years ago from my ex helped me: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. When my Facebook buddy Barack Obama suggested texting HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and did it right then. Easy. Not the perfect, fully researched decision, but a good thing to do. And it's one less undone task to add to my burden.

In case you've procrastinated, it's not too late. After the emergency relief effort, Haiti will still need help rebuilding. Here's a list of organizations responding to the disaster in Haiti, assembled by NPR. 

A Lost Opportunity

I sent a condolence letter yesterday. It was about a second cousin of mine who’d had peritoneal cancer. Although I hadn’t seen her for years, we were the same age and had played together as kids on family visits. Meaning she was only 52—my age—when she died. 

I was pleased, though, to have actually sent the condolence letter, because I have a history of not getting them out. It’s not that I don’t care, although it might look that way. If I can do it online, I’m good—like yesterday. But getting a nice card, a thoughtful note, the address, and a stamp all together in the same place at the same time stymies me, no matter how much I’m moved to express my sympathy. On an old to-do list of mine are several condolence letters I’ve never written. They’re a heavy weight.

Just last fall, this cousin’s mother—my mom’s cousin—also died of peritoneal cancer. Right away, I e-mailed letters of condolence to my second cousin and one of her brothers.

But the e-mail addresses were old, and my messages bounced back to me. I meant to figure out where to send snail mail to this cousin and her brother. I would like to have connected with her in this small way before she died. But I never got around to it. 

I once heard someone say that lost opportunities go hand in hand with ADD. I definitely lost this opportunity.

And there’s one more little piece. For some reason, I ended up on the phone with my mom’s cousin—the mother of my second cousin—a couple years ago. We had a nice chat. And we ended up talking about ADD. Someone she knew had it—I don’t remember who.

I said I’d send her some of my favorite ADD resources. But that task ended up as just one of the many aging items on my to-do list. And, as it turns out, as another lost opportunity.

CaringBridge provides free websites that help families, friends, and the larger community keep in touch through "critical illness, treatment, and recovery"—or not. Looks to be extrememly helpful for anyone, but could be particularly useful for people with organizational challenges. Although I would love to have known earlier about the website there for my cousin, at least the site enabled me to send a letter of condolence when my branch of the family did find out about it.