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Seven Days

I was going to write about something else today, but while I was in and out of the kitchen and porch grilling dinner, I found this lovely creature:

It is a Luna moth.  I have only seen one other Luna moth, also where I live, a couple of years ago.  The one I found today was clinging to the doorjamb of my porch door.  Since I am short, I almost missed seeing it.  While my dinner cooked, I watched the motionless moth, taking in the rare sight for as long as I could.  These moths are not considered rare, but they are not always observed as they are nocturnal and only live for about seven days (more information here).

This evening I have been pondering measuring progress in seven day increments, one week to us, but an entire lifetime for the Luna moth.  I caught myself feeling bad about all the times this past week that I goofed off instead of stitching, writing, drawing or being otherwise creatively productive.  Over the past year, a few things have happened that reminded me of how short of a time we are here, and as a result, I have been more aware of how much time I waste in a day.  I still struggle with time management, and it is easy to get overwhelmed by balancing things I want to do with the things I have to do ASAP.  I know I am not the only one with these issues!

Finding the Luna moth today reminds me not to dwell on what I haven’t done, but celebrate what I have done, and to look ahead seven days to what I can try to accomplish.  I am going to head downstairs to see if my little moth is still on the porch, and look for some fabric to match that delicate celadon color.  I won’t spend too much time looking for the fabric, I have some older projects that I want to stitch.  How much will I get done in the next seven days?