Dynamic Woman — Changing Times
Written August 1, 2018. Our ashy air blots out most of the charm of summer days in the forest. I’ve fled my mountain community, where the sky is thick with smoke from the Ferguson Fire, and driven to the coast. I’ve made a seascape. Here on Seascape Blvd in Rio Del Mar the weather is cool and breezy with a float of warm sunshine.
Disaster is the worst kind of distraction. Disasters upend daily routine and reset expectations to a default, anything-could-happen mode. I dumped a drink on my MacBook Air. I tried every resuscitation method I could think of, but machine did not respond. Off to the Genius Bar we went. Then the real drama started.
Last month after I wrote a blog about distractions I picked up a book, Disruptive Witness: Speaking truth in a distracted age, by Alan Noble. I love a book that triggers ideas for actions I can take to support a deeply-held belief.
At a recent author reading, stepping into Nellie’s persona freed me to be more expressive. I felt like a kid in a Halloween costume emboldened to ask for candy from complete strangers! It was so much easier for me as Nellie to ask for an audience’s attention for her story than for me as an author to ask for attention for my book.
We live in an age of distractions. Like germs in the air we breathe, we can tolerate few disturbances with no ill effect. But the constant battle for our attention can trigger an I-just-don’t-care-anymore numbness that leads to anxiety, apathy, and burnout.
