Before I start on Thursday I just want to share a nugget from The Visionary; Epistle of the Universal Church Ministries. It is an interesting document full of the strangeness of America, religion, and advertisements for clerical impedimenta.

This pops into my in box on a monthly basis headed “Minister Roland” as I am in fact an ordained minister of this church. No big deal any one can become a minister on line, but I did also get a Doctor of Divinity out of it as well. Anyway an article caught my eye about the rumpus that was caused when an elementary school took their children on a field trip to what turned out to be a gay cafe. They had been doing it for years and no one noticed it was a gay cafe as it was intended to give kids the experience of ordering food socially and just acquiring normal social skills. True the place was very “Rainbowy” but the kids just thought it was pretty. What set the hare running was that some one noticed the racey names of some of the dishes on the menu. I’m not going to tell you all of them but this one was my favourite: “The Hellena Bun, a burger “tossed in Rosie’s own “Smack My Cheeks and Make ’em Rosie’ sauce. I bet the kids loved it, and laughed themselves silly. The adults were a bit more critical, one wrote “I certainly hope you get the wrath of God for this! The author of this post signed off with “And this coming from 60 year old Proud Lesbian!” Don’t you just love America, if only Alistair Cooke was still alive to write his letters from America.

Thursday, up and “mueslied” by 9 o’clock so I can be in front of the screen for a morning work meeting. There were only three of us there but is stretched to the hour with real work and then we reduced to two and I had the chance to chat to a colleague that I usually do not get to have much time with. So at 11 o’clock I indulged in more coffee and attended to some of the admin I needed to do. In a short space of time I receive two calls from friends touching base and seeing how I am. One of them is recovering from COVID and introduced me to the spoon theory, it a way of conceptualizing energy expenditure and regulating the energy you have in order to maximize your capabilities. The originator is Christine Miserandino and her story of how Spoon Theory started can be found at www.butyoudontlooksick.com. I’ve read it a couple of times now. My friend was able to expand when I asked questions like “what size spoon are they, tea, dessert, serving or soup?” Apparently you can lose spoons. The point is that as she is recovering from COVID the management of her energy is a very important issue as energy expenditure (spoons) needs to be considered as once energy is gone its gone. It reminded me of when I was marathon running, always it was abought pace as energy spent in sprinting could never be recovered and might mean not finishing the race. It also parallels the work by Loehr and Schwartz; which looks at energy management from a view point of training athletes and applying it to individuals and organisations.

I like the Spoon Theory is feels more human and derived from lived experience, which makes sense to me. For me it feels intuitive and fits my experience. For example today I had to choose between spending my energy by going to the gym or being in a space with TC people. I chose my physical needs over my head space needs, knowing that the gym would spend more spoons and mean I would have fewer spoons for the evening. The blog will just about spoon me out and then I will drop into Bill Bailey Power Save mode. So from a quite short conversation I am suddenly richer and have Spoon Theory to add to my tool kit of survival.

I have lunch with my partner and then I get myself ready to go to the gym, having decided to spend my spoons this day. I drive to the gym to find the bar/restaurant closed yet again but manage to acquire a large bottle of water before going to the gym floor and bagging a cross trainer. An hour later, 701 calories less, 7.73 kilometres further and a litre of water heavier and at least three spoons lighter on energy I shower and drive home. I record my session in my food and exercise journal and down load the Spoon Theory and read it. Its tuna pasta night, my favourite and as I wait for my partner to prepare it I start the blog. Pasta arrives as does NCIS on TV, although I continue to write the blog, my partner disappears to her singing lesson. I write more on the blog and then I am almost spoonless, I have one left to clear away the kitchen, plan tomorrow and prepare.