STRESSED IS JUST ‘DESSERTS’ SPELLED BACKWARDS

It’s like the Universe is trying to tell me something ... like “go make a rhubarb crisp” or “this is a cinnamon bun baking kind of day”.  Heck even a puffed wheat cake would be a good use of my energy.

My jittery, hyped up, nervous energy.

I’ve got some things on the go.  Nothing Earth shattering, really: just Life.  Projects I’ve started, stuff I’m involved in, committees I belong to.  Individually they are all just small things - just a meeting here and there and a little volunteering from time to time.  I actually like this role of giving back to my community.  It’s just that back in February when plans were first forming for our summer season it all seemed so far off and laid back.  As of yesterday we are officially past the first day of summer and February’s far off big picture has made its usual progression into multiple lists and details and duties that seem to get more numerous each day.  July 1^st is only nine days away.  The crunch is on.

We’ve literally done everything there is to be done at nine days out.  There have been blips along the way, for sure, but at this point in time we are on top of it.  I think. 

I’ve double and triple checked the lists from other years and nothing seems to be missing.

We’ve made up the worker’s list and even have a few new names to work with.

The posters and ads have been proof read several times – let’s hope we caught all the important stuff.

And there’s absolutely nothing I can do about the weather.

I try (in vain) to recall how it feels to have the whole day behind me:  that happy kind of tired we get because it’s all done for another year, the writing down of ‘lessons learned’ so we have them for next time, and the occasional pat on the back for the work we’ve done.  I know the antidote for all this pre-event stress is a successful ending, and I just can’t wait to get there.

I also have come to understand that it always is a success – even if it rains, or the band cancels, or we run out of hotdogs.  It is what it is.  People will eat cake in damp clothing, sing Oh Canada with a lump in their throat and stay for the fireworks because it’s our country’s birthday and we are all there to celebrate.

And yet I still can’t shake the anxiousness I feel.  I wish it was July 2^nd already!

Whenever an award like Citizen of the Year or Woman of Distinction comes up on the news I always listen in awe to the years of service these people have devoted to earn such a reward.  I add up their years of service and multiply that by the meetings they’ve attended, the ideas they’ve tried out, the cold calls they’ve made, and the donations they’ve asked for, and I think to myself that the recognition they are being given is like the light of a single candle when the mega watts of a search light is what should be called for. 

And as I watch the winner of the award accept her pretty plaque and graciously acknowledge all the people who deserve this prize with her I think to myself ... did she spend the time between the planning stage and the actual event baking desserts because she was stressed too?