The Whole 'Tude Family!

The Whole 'Tude Family!
Trying to stay warm...Snuggling: the answer to the quest for world peace!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Busy Bee!

Maybe you didn't know this, but the name Melissa actually means honey bee. I know this because it's a rite of passage when little girls get to the age where they hit double digits, they tend to be completely obsessed with their names. I'm pretty sure that nearly all tourist trap souvenir shops have a display filled with bike-sized personalized license plates, sticker sets of puppies and kittens, and useless laminated cards that tell what common names mean. And Melissa means honey bee.

Ironic, right?

I get a whole lot accomplished, and people ask me quite often if I ever sit down. I actually sit still quite a bit. It's in the sitting still that I come up with all the things I think it might be fun to knock out or try to learn. At the very least, it's usually an excuse to take a road trip to someplace interesting or buy a tool. In a few days during Spring Break, I knocked out one serious garage clean out/reorganization, a small painting project, some woodworking projects, and a minor flower bed makeover. I planned my new fence, dreamed a little bit more about what I'd like to create in my back yard, and I thought a little bit about what I want to be when I eventually grow up. I did more than that, but you get the idea.

The not-so-great part of having lots of ideas lies in the execution. I've been called the Queen of Unfinished Projects. (Raising hand. Guilty as charged.) So I've made a concerted effort to change that over the last few years. I still have a ton of unfinished projects--half-knitted scarves, a pile of recipes I want to try, TWO half-stripped old doors in my garage, and an overflowing Pinterest board or two--but I'll get to them.

I had an advisor in college who used to say this:  "Melissa, the people with the most to do get the most done." He was so right.

Honey bees are creatures who are so busy they defy physics. Their tiny wings shouldn't be able to keep their bodies off the ground, much less fly them from one flower to another to another then back to the hive where they do what again? Kick their little bee heels up and watch TV? No, those suckers fly home, check on the Queen, build the hive, and make honey. They are productive because they live and work in a way that never loses sight of their purpose. I don't know if it's in their bee DNA or if that's just one heck of a motivational queen, but those little suckers get their To Do list knocked out!

I wonder if they sleep...

All this rambling on to say I'm taking a page from the swarm handbook. Choose goals that serve the long-term purpose and the species as a whole then just flap as hard as possible to get it done. The other interesting thing I notice about bees is that they always make time to smell the flowers. So here's to being busy, but not so busy that I don't take time to smell the flowers life hands me.