Somewhere between poised and panicky

Picture credit: Britta Benson

Good morning, afternoon, evening – whenever this little piece hits you, rest assured that all is well here in my humble abode. Kind of. Just the usual little hickups, shipwrecks, whatchimmacallits, aka: life.

Happens a lot.

So, yesterday, I was due to lead the Boundary Way Writers February session. I had it all prepared. Ta-da!

Then, of course, the element of surprise made an appearance. No, not just the usual Zoom updates barging in two minutes before the start of the session, blinking, flashing – press update now or be forever damned! I experienced the full ‘beauty’ of working from home, all domino pieces neatly lined up and ueber-ready to fall.

The phone rang multiple times. I’m self-employed, I have to answer it. Can’t afford to lose business and normally, my husband would deal with this while I’m busy, but he came home seconds before the session, wielding his right index finger and writhing in pain.

He had had an accident while doing some woodwork, sanding, to be precise, nothing life threatening, but a sizeable skelf had managed to embed itself under the nail of his finger and just wouldn’t budge. He had to see a doctor to get it removed – and get a Tetanus injection at the same time.

Breathe!

The session began, breathe, breathe, breathe. Five minutes in, I set the first writing exercise and my phone rings again, this time my dad needing to chat, not feeling great. He managed to catch a dry cough and a bout of depression at the same time so was in need of some tlc and this couldn’t wait because he didn’t want to miss the bingo in the care home later.

Life!

There was me, worrying about my injured husband, dealing with my moody dad and leading a Zoom writing workshop at the same time – ever so slightly less elegant, ever so slightly less poised and perhaps a little more panicky than I would have liked. Still, I managed to schedule all my extra-Zoom activities into the designated writing time when I could switch off the camera.

Halfway through, I just laughed. Wondering what would could possibly happen next. And, sure thing: my son texted, wondering if I could stick some food on for him because he had skipped lunch in order to go to chess club and was now starving.

No problem.

Somewhere between poised and panicky, I learned to laugh. Enjoy the mayhem. Throw perfection to the wind and enjoy this mess. Perhaps it helped that my theme for the month was ‘Enchantment’ and that I showed the group images from the Ranjani Shettar exhibition I had visited in the Barbican Conservatory.

Look at this:

Picture credit: Britta Benson

Such a joyful place.

Picture credit: Britta Benson

In amongst the usual madness, wonder.

Cloud song on the horizon – the title of the exhibition. You can watch a video about the artist and her work here and trust me, that’s five minutes you won’t regret: https://youtu.be/dkAV4KoflpQ?feature=shared

Happy Tuesday to you all, and I’ll see you here tomorrow, if you wish!

©️2024 Britta Benson. No unauthorized use permitted.