Analog Days

           

            It didn’t start the way I’d planned. Friday going into a holiday weekend…How hard could this be?  Well, seems it was pointed that way and what’s worse, I had only myself to blame.

I was less than an hour into the business part of my morning when I discovered a major screw up caused by one tiny little digit on a billing statement, that stood to knock a chunk of my receivables into nearly Christmas.

            Totally my bad and another reminder of what I already knew (i.e. that I need help...) Oh the joys of running your own business…

 Sometimes you want to curse. Sometimes you want to cry. Sometimes you do both at once, only mostly I was praying someone would have mercy, but at the time, I wasn’t so sure (especially with everyone else poised to enter their holiday weekend).

            Everything I tried hit a wall. In moments like these smart people quit trying, but clearly I had already established that one.

            I could feel my energy spiraling downward and it was only 10 am. If I wasn’t careful I could lose the day entirely. Thoughts of missed deadlines, delayed reprints, botched holiday sales, new projects that would have to be postponed sent my creative mind into orbit. Not sure why we think beating ourselves up in times like these will help, but that’s what I was doing (again).

When I hit this frame of mind (which isn’t often, but boy when I do…) I know the best thing to do is let go, lest I screw up something else. Something about the energy of gremlins keeps ‘em multiplying once you let ‘em in. Once they surface, they keep on surfacing, affecting any and everything you touch until you shake the vibe. Nope. Times like these I’m best to pull back from paperwork entirely. With that I decided to shift gears…unplug…stop the madness. I know. It's time for an analog day!

Can’t take credit for the term. That goes to my friend, Digital Dave, which he uses when referencing things back to nature. For those unfamiliar, analog is the way we used to record sound in the golden days of radio. Basically it means original sound (your voice, live guitar, authentic picking, genuine talent) ...going straight to tape. (Think reel-to-reel recording devices or old phonographs.) Digital is how we live today. Bits of data replicated, turned into numbers and compressed so you can watch a video on your cell phone or hear a song in your blue tooth. It’s faster, but not purer. In short, it's a knock off of the authentic. Most don’t notice. Fewer folks care, as it no doubt makes life easier. But some days your body just needs old school.

            Farms and gardens offer numerous analog opportunities. (Pretty much all of farming is an analog proposition if you’re doing it the way I am.) Tasks such as pulling weeds, toting buckets, sweeping stalls-- analog faming 101. But mentally (especially on days like today), these tasks become all the more meaningful because they’re therapy. Therapy for a frustrated mind.  And the good news…? I got a lot of therapy lying around.

            With this I give my friend a call…
            “How’d you like an analog day?” 
            Wrapping a new website on his end, he was game for the concept…up for the drive. Within no time we were poop-shoveling, spool-painting, shed-cleaning fools. (No greater friend than one who'd shovel poop with you, can we agree?)

Don’t know who is happier as of this writing: the goats who have clean stalls and brightly decorated spools …or me for salvaging a day, but suffice it to say it was a good way to enter a holiday weekend...
Other holiday/holy day rituals include cranking up the music...
Today's song de jure . . .

                       “I get by with a little help from my friends...
                               Gonna try with a little  help from my friends...."