On Being a Scanner

I've always called myself a Browser, with a capital B. I'm never more happy than when perusing, picking through, and considering. That applies to everything from picking green beans to choosing a book at the public library, and I'm always looking for that next new thing to learn. Consciously or not, I can't help it; I'm always watching for something delicious.

When I've found that Next Great Thing, I jump in, taking all I can find (grab it while it's ripe!), staying up until the wee hours researching, studying, then planning and designing. I am completely focused on that subject for a few days, a week, a month or so. Then, when I've had enough, I move on. I'll come back later when I get a craving to revisit that particular topic.

My friends and family shake their heads and laugh, they can tell when I'm on another tangent, usually because I'm babbling excitedly about how fascinating it is. And really, there is no end to all of the glorious things left to be studied.

The downside to all of this fun is that I lose track of TIME, that annoying thing that everyone else seems to use to measure their lives. There's just not enough of it, is there? Certainly not enough to keep up with the dishes and laundry! The competing guilt and my lack of organization keep me frazzled, and it seems I never finish any of my great ideas or projects.

Turns out I'm not the only one who lives this way. A few months ago, I picked up a book by Barbara Sher, Refuse to Choose: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that reading it has changed my life.

According to her, I'm a "Scanner" (my type is the Sybil Scanner, to be exact, and I've never been so relieved to sound like I have multiple personalities)!

If you've ever felt frustrated or inadequate because you never seem to stick to anything, you leave unfinished projects for something new, or you just can't seem to choose or commit to a career because you might be missing out on something else, you might very well be a Scanner, yourself.

Here's the part where Barbara Sher changed my life - being a Scanner isn't a bad thing!

What? You're kidding. You can't seriously mean that the stress of dealing with piles of books and craft clutter and laundry is a good thing. Inability to make a decision or be satisfied - those are character flaws, right?

Well, I was looking at it wrong. Those things are often the result of me trying to force myself to do things the "right" way, rather than allowing what feels natural to me. I'm wired differently than someone who is able to choose a project, move through it at a regular pace toward a set goal, and finish neatly. But my way of doing things is just as valid, and in my case, sometimes better!

Sher's book explains the perfectionism and guilt, and even our own mistaken assumptions about what we should be doing. But then she moves on to give pure inspiration to discouraged Scanners like me, with organizational tools that fit the way I think, and methods for developing the life I want to live. She even describes fulfilling careers for Scanners.

I've gone on long enough, but I'll just mention one of the tools in Refuse to Choose that I have found most helpful - after sketching out some ideas in my Scanner Daybook and making The Big List (okay, so I mentioned two more!), I condensed my interests into about 30 categories (like gardening, writing, homesteading, crafts, business ideas, etc.) that each cover more specific topics, and then I started making a 3-ring binder for each of those categories! I already had one for Homemaking, and had various notebooks floating around for my gardening and writing projects. But everything was scattered, just like my thoughts. Now I have a shelf started, just for my binders. When I come back to an interest, I know where to find it, and I can add notes, research, ideas, photographs of finished projects, anything I want to include. As Sher points out, over the years I will be creating my own books, and I will also have something to show for all of the time and work I put into things. Sounds so simple, but it was a light bulb for me, and has helped me organize my mind, and actually control my tangents a bit better - I have somewhere to jot down an idea, without going overboard when I don't have time.

Now I'm thinking about blogging in a similar way, maybe having a few blogs, each covering certain subjects. It might keep me from tangling up so many things in one post, anyway!

We'll see if I can pull off the balancing act of not spending more time writing than doing!

Spring Things

Woo hoo! How's that for keeping up with things? It's been what - nine months?

I'll jump in again, might as well.

Just to keep my future self abreast of what was going on in 2008:

January: Ron Paul. Dove in completely. This transformed into
February's research on various "conspiracy theories", many of which turned out not to be conspiracies or theories, but flat out plans by various groups.
In March, I realized I wanted to keep bees again,
And by April, I was in full-tilt survivalist research,
Which brings us to May, where I have bought a canner and a grain mill, the bees are in their hive, and I have my veggie garden barely started!
(There are more than a few smaller tangents in there, like bento boxes, and Japanese crochet, but I'll skip those for now. You're welcome!)

Ooh, back up. Forgot that in December, we ended up buying a house in town. The internet situation here was not good, satellite created a lag that interfered with hubby's work. After having our hopes raised and dashed repeatedly by local phone companies, and cleaning the house enough for the guys to come in and install lines that wouldn't work (we are just a wee bit too far for most things), one company finally installed DSL that isn't as high-speed as "real" DSL, but has a great connection with no lag. By that time, though, we were already buying the house, because the quoted costs of various lines had been higher than a mortgage payment!

Anyway, we went ahead with the "town house" for a few reasons: hubby plans to use it as office space, we can set up a schoolroom there, it is within walking distance of the kids' activities, the theater, etc., and since it is zoned for business, I can have a little shop there!

Now, of course, these plans have been lying dormant, other than a bit of dejunking that resulted in a great yard sale on Saturday. And with the economy looking the way it does, did we make a mistake? Because yes, we kept this place...

So the plans for the shop have changed a bit. I'll go into that in another post, though. No, really!

A View of Today

It wasn't until I sat down and looked back at the day that I realized how many little bits of "nature" had affected me today, even though I didn't go outside until late afternoon.

I talked to my mother this afternoon, she was ecstatic about the beautiful weather we're having, and excited to tell me that she and Dad had seen honeybees and blooms all over their yard today.

My oldest daughter spent the night with friends. Today, they went down to the river to look at how high it had gotten from all the rain we'd had (yesterday, some spots in town were underwater).
I phoned a friend, and we ended up talking about ponds and fishing. I have a great-aunt and great-uncle who fish together; wherever they live, they like to have a good pond nearby. I love to fish. I could stare at a bobber or the ripples on the water for hours, plenty of time for contemplation, no pressure to do anything else. It would be a nice way to spend old age. My husband doesn't like the idea of actually catching fish, but he'd come along to read a book. He's got the idea, he just doesn't know it. You can fish without bait or a hook, you know. ;)

I mowed some of the yard with the new reel mower. It's no harder to push than a gas mower, and works well, but the bolt that holds the little back wheel on keeps working its way out, so I guess I'll have to dig through the toolbox for something I can use to tighten it. The kids were fascinated with the whole thing, and followed me around, asking questions and pointing out spots that I'd missed. I explained the scissor-like cutting action, that it was a bit like giving the grass a haircut, and they let me know that the grass was thanking me, the barber. Apparently I couldn't hear the grass, so they translated, before running off to build more "anthills" under the swingset.

After we watched three deer cross the road, I took them walking to look for any signs of wild asparagus on a hill near our house. Nothing yet, but we'll keep checking. I collected seeds from the fall plants a couple of years ago, and I didn't know if they were still viable, but the ones I sowed this winter are germinating! Long, white radicles are reaching out and pushing into the soil. I wonder if the spears on the hill will come up at the same time as the sprouts. Hmm...

On the walk, we stopped to look at tiny spring flowers, and when we found acorns, the 6yo remembered last summer's acorn collection. Did we still have it? Sure! So when we got back, he decided that he and his little sister would plant them all, throughout the yard. I didn't put up too much of a protest; they're probably dried out, so I don't expect little oak trees everywhere. But you never know!

While they dug and planted, I sat down at an outdoor table and leafed through Eliot Coleman's Four-Season Harvest, thinking about all of those seeds and roots sitting in my kitchen, waiting to go into the ground. I heard a clicking noise and looked up to see my first bat of the year, fluttering around above our heads. There was still a good amount of light, and there was a reddish tint to its fur where last bit of sunlight was hitting it. Click, click. Click, click. That was interesting, I've never heard one do that before. Another bat showed up before long, but it was smaller, darker, flapped its wings more...frantically? I watched them swoop and dive for a while, that sudden stop-then-dart thing they do, then wider and wider circles over an area.

You know how, on summer nights, kids like to throw rocks in the air, then watch a bat dive down to follow it for a bit? I got a silly notion, and wondered if there were other ways to play with a bat. Would waves of any sort interfere with a bat's perception? How about cell phone signals? Don't laugh, it was the only thing I had on me. Okay, so just for the record, cell phone tones, at least, don't seem to send out anything particularly interesting, based on limited study. LOL I do wonder about waves in general, though, and got the idea it could make the basis of an interesting short story. Bats driven mad by personal devices invade city! ANYway.

So, I'll skip all of the birds, the spring peepers singing, the way the cat's pawprints look in the pressed-flat, wet clay spots in our yard. It's been a good day, with exhilarating air, and almost drowse-inducing sunshine. A day to be outside.

And a bit ago, I found the 6yo using scissors to give the grass a trim!