Pretty embarrassing...

I got virtually nothing graded today, entirely defeating the purpose of canceling classes. Well, not entirely: I did get bills paid (had to be done either today or tomorrow), plus a few other life maintenance things that have been buzzing around my head like gnats, wanting attention. I'm hoping that having graded a few, I've now broken the resistance to doing them and will chip away at a few tomorrow, and then be more productive Saturday and Sunday. I did reschedule one of my appointments for tomorrow to buy myself a little time in the morning, so here's hoping.

I will be interested to hear from the students next week, whether they took advantage of the canceled class time to meet in their groups or whether (as I suspect) they instead took the time as a chance to do nothing (or at least nothing having to do with school--or my class in particular). But I truly am in a zen-like state of taking each moment as it comes: I'm not planning ahead, or anticipating much, just rolling with whatever happens. I sometimes get knotted up in a desire to control everything (even stuff I can't, in fact, control), so it's very good practice for me to open my hands and let go. At the end of my riding lesson, there's always a time when I let the reins slide through my fingers, keeping almost no contact with the bit, so the horse can stretch his neck out and relax. I feel somewhat the same way about the semester (though in this case, I think I am both the rider and the horse). Letting things go on a long rein, just sitting back and letting myself be carried. Kinda nice, I must say.