Procrastination

February 28, 2010

I am a chronic procrastinator. I try to change it, but more often than not, I end up using that frantic energy to get things done at the last minute. I also often spend that frantic time cursing under my breath, snapping at my children, and swearing to myself that I will change my last-minute ways. It's an on-going internal conflict for me. Functioning best with that adrenaline rush, but at the same time feeling bad about it and wanting to change it.

In the past few months,however, I have seen some of the positive benefits of procrastination in the garden. The first incident happened in our back yard. When we first moved here our backyard was just a fenced in box of grass. At least it appeared that way, until we didn't mow the grass for several weeks and suddenly I noticed bright green shoots growing up around the perimeter. The mowing still didn't get done and those shoots then turned into big green clumps. I began to suspect they were bulbs of some sort. And sure enough by December our backyard had a beautiful display of paperwhites.

The second procrastination pay-off: letting our arugla bolt. We didn't eat it quickly enough and we now have a pot full of pretty white blooms (see the pic?) which will hopefully re-seed and produce more on its own. Neither one is an earth shattering discovery or life-changing event, but rather a good reminder to myself: Letting things go isn't always a bad thing.It is highly unlikely that I will ever truly be an early or an overly-organized person, but I am trying to embrace the fact that I will be the person who enjoys the unmown paperwhites and the bolted arugula blooms. Now if only I could find some positive benefits to letting the dishes or the laundry go....sadly those piles of procrastination never seem to grow anything except mold or mildew.
katy said...

so true! Great post.

Dim Sum, Bagels, and Crawfish said...

Thanks, Katy.

Laurie said...

LOL - I hear ya....in the midst of a very nice weekend, I BOTH washed a boatload of clothes (seriously - HOW do two people, one only 20 pounds, MAKE so many dirty clothes>) AND washed an embarrassing sink of dishes...

Kellie said...

Thanks for this post. I feel exactly the same way. I wouldn't want to lose my sense of wonder and spontaneity, but sometimes I do wish I had a personal assistant. And of course, thank you for the beautiful, illustrative photo.

Heather said...

Very thoughtfully stated. As a girl growing up in rural, semi-arid country, I always reveled in the spring time flourishing of what my mother called weeds, and I mourned a little when the mower finally did its deed.

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