Yesterday morning I took a few minutes from my super busy week to capture Harris Hawks on a Century plant. I was so excited to see them. There were three altogether. This is the final picture of my series when one was alone.
I spotted three Harris Hawks out the window. I let myself out of the casita on the opposite end of the house and quietly and stealthily made my way along the house hiding in corners. I snapped photos, while behind a pillar support for our patio overhang. Then I made it to one support even closer. Eventually, I sat down smack dab in plain sight at an outside table across from them.
The top hawk took off before I could get a picture. This is second hawk I caught in flight. Look at how aerodynamic his wings are.
Second hawk landed on the wall.
Here’s my first photo from a greater distance away, catching all three hawks on a Century Plant.
The moments outside photographing hawks broke up my super busy week, which I wrote a bit about HERE. The time in my backyard with the hawks charged me up for my last busy day of the week. I’m ready for a break now!
My cardinal comes to visit daily. I love his bright color and song.
I had a super busy week last week and a repeat of too much to do this week. I like quieter weeks when I have a few days with nothing to do but read and write.
What’s keeping me busy this week?
Yesterday, I had a meeting for my women’s charity group that supports victims of sex trafficking. We have our annual fundraiser in March. That means it’s up to me to write press releases, public service announcements and then prepare the program for printing. In the Fall, I worked on advertising and sponsorships.
I was fortunate to have a neighbor volunteer to help me get out the press releases and PSAs. But she hasn’t done this before, so we have to meet to get her up to speed.
The other thing is, I’m new to the area. I don’t know the media like I did in Palm Springs. I was fortunate to have years in public relations and advertising in-house for a country club developer and a PR agency prior to opening my own business. I worked for several years for one of the largest advertisers in the Coachella Valley. The ad people from radio, TV and print took us (me and my PR boss) out to lunch. I had friendships with local media managers, reporters and sales people. When I was doing volunteer publicity for our swim team, also a non-profit, I was able to call on my media friends for help.
In Arizona, I have no connections. I don’t even know what the local media is or who they are. I mainly stream online or watch national news. It makes the job much more difficult.
Without posting my entire schedule this week and boring everyone to death, the main thing keeping me busy is the charity group and our upcoming event. The problem I found with being on the board of directors is our group is too small. Our group was in it’s peak maybe 10 years ago — before my time. It was more than 200 women strong. We’re now under 30. COVID shut down the group for several years and people drifted away. They also aged up. I think a lot of our members left their 50, 60 and 70s behind. The group was founded more than 30 years ago by four friends. Thirty years later, I understand why they’re no longer members.
Through the years, the group raised more than $3 million for women and children in need.
I’m so happy to be a part of this group, but don’t know how to make it grow — but I’m doing my part to help out.
When do you have super busy weeks, when there’s little time to sit and think?
What are you involved with that takes most of your time?
I’m having one of those weeks where every single day I have an appointment or something I have to do. Hair, doctors, a fundraiser for trafficked women and men….Every single day it’s something. Sometimes it’s more than one thing. Also, my appointments are 45 minutes away in downtown Scottsdale, so while I make the drive, I make a list of what I can get done while I’m in civilization. With the price of gas, I might as well take advantage of a big drive and hit Trader Joe’s.
Yesterday I left the house at 8:30 a.m. Plenty of time for my morning pages, prayers and walk. But then I didn’t return home until 6:30 p.m. because of appointments and stuff to do and big gaps between my appointments 45 minutes from the house.
After a relaxing visit to the beach, I can handle it. I just don’t know why sometimes everything stacks up in one week. My son and I were talking about it. He’s been busy at work, doctors, socializing. We both agreed we’d prefer to socialize with friends once or twice a month! This weekend I’m having people over Friday and going to friends for dinner on Saturday.
I guess I should be thankful for the energy to get through the week. And the blessing of a good night’s sleep to get through the day’s activities. Sometimes I wonder if it’s the past few years of solitude that make it harder to be social or getting out of the house for activities and appointments?
This is one of the cacti I photographed last week covered in buds. It’s blooming nicely!
What are your thoughts on being busy versus quiet time at home? Do you think the COVID shut downs have changed how we view our solitude?
If we want to rebuild lives that are more balanced and meaningful, we need to prioritize. Declining requests is crucial.
This was in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, written by Elizabeth Bernstein.
Since we moved and things started opening up post COVID shutdowns, I find myself saying yes to everything. That’s because I lived through two years of doing nothing. As my life gets busier and busier, I long for quiet time alone to read or sit in the back yard listening to and watching the birds.
Recently, I said yes to writing the community’s newsletter. (I’m not sure that was a good idea.) I’ve said yes to book club and coffee club. I’ve said yes to neighbor’s invitations. I’ve joined the YMCA and go four times a week to swim and workout. We’ve had people over for wine and dinner. I can’t believe I’m missing the endless days of no plans. But I am.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
“No” has never been an easy word to say, especially to the people we care about most. And after two years of pandemic life—with very few invites to decline—we may be even rustier than usual at delivering the bad news. et, many of us now are fielding more invites and requests than we have in years.
We’re eager to get back out there. We’re also burnt out on stress and schedules that often seem like all work and no fun. We know that if we want to rebuild lives that are more balanced and more meaningful we need to prioritize. Learning to decline requests will be crucial to this effort.
Think of saying no as the ultimate self-care strategy.
“If we just agree to everything mindlessly, we are not going to be able to come up with the priorities to take us where we want to go,” says Vanessa Bohns, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University.
We sometimes say yes simply because we’re uncomfortable saying no. We’re social beings—we want people to like us. We feel guilty if we let others down or hurt their feelings, especially our closest family and friends. They’re the ones who often want us to say yes the most—and who may experience our “no” as a rejection of them, rather than of the request.
Bernstein, the reporter, offers five tips for saying no which include not rushing, start with thank you and standing firm.
What are your thoughts about saying no? Does it come easy to you? Are you getting more invitations to do things outside the home? How do you feel about it?
Our resident cardinal I watch while Im writing in the casita.
