Reconnoitering

Astrologer told me to spend the month of September "reconnoitering" before beginning (or, to be more accurate, picking back up) my book. Told me to rest. Told me to let my focused brain turn off and allow deeper/different/sub-conscious stuff to bubble up. Told me to exercise a ton. Told me to not make work my default button, how if I have 10 minutes here and there to use them to relax, not to get more done.

I don't relax well. What I find most relaxing is getting done the things I believe need to be done. I find movement soothing and inactivity (of the body) almost tortuous. I've decided that I will rest the compulsive checking of blogs/e-mailing/texting part of my brain and body, however, and put to use good ol' elbow grease.

Working like a charm. Got going in the kitchen. Worked on cleaning and sorting, purging and wiping while my over-used parts of the brain chilled, and the oft-neglected parts were allowed to surface. Didn't hurt one little bit that this day coincided with Rojo's first full day of school in THREE VERY LONG MONTHS, but I digress.

Looked up reconnoiter, had that word in English vocab. back in high school in the (very) early 80's. Thought I had a rough idea of what it meant, but love it even more now that I checked. It's a military term, it means to carefully and slowly access the situation before approaching, to make a preliminary observation. Something anyone that knows me can tell you I just plain suck at.

Think I'm going to go big with reconnoitering in general. I am one to cut three times and measure once. I am one to say yes quickly, and regret it slowly. I am one to get it done badly just to get it done. I'm not a reconnoiterer.

Yet.

* photo from http://labs.omniti.com/reconnoiter