Over the weekend one of our children and his wife came to visit. We decided to take advantage of what I consider THE jewel of San Diego, Balboa Park located near downtown (this photo is from the Balboa Park website). Each time I visit I come away feeling so fortunate to be able to have such a beautiful multi dimensional slice of nature so close. It’s filled with gardens, museums, galleries, educational centers and so much more – we began by visiting Suzy Spafford, founder of Suzy’s Zoo at the May Day celebration on the lawn of the majestic Marston Mansion. Suzy was displaying and selling some of her amazing artwork and a vendor was selling a number of beautiful hybrid geraniums named after the characters of Duckport, the town occupied by all the characters Suzy has created. ( Her colorful life is the feature story in chapter six of “Common Threads”).
Then we wandered through the park stopping at various museums, and went to see the iMax movie about the Hubble telescope at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. It was an amazing film about the history of the Hubble, the expansive depth of vision into space the telescope has provided, how the astronauts have had to repair it, upgrade it and the continued view it has allowed us all to enjoy. One of the scenes really resonated with me – on the May 2009 mission to repair and upgrade the telescope, John Grunsfeld, one of the astronauts, was tasked with climbing out of the shuttle, opening the side of the Hubble, wedging himself inside it between extremely sensitive pieces of equipment and outfitted in what could only have been described as the most cumbersome gear and gloves possible, he needed to unscrew a small computer panel that was held in place by 32 tiny screws. Keeping in mind he and his partner had already been making repairs for hours with no food or bathroom break, combined with the stress of making sure they didn’t touch or bump into anything they weren’t working on, he set about slowly taking out one screw at a time. He said it was like doing heart surgery in oven mitts – the way he was able to accomplish his task was, in his words, by “being in a Zen moment” with each screw. He focused on making each turn of the tool slowly, carefully, until that single screw was out – he didn’t worry about how many he had done or how many he had left to do. He just cleared his head, calmed his nerves and focused on one screw at a time. I couldn’t help but associate that mindset with getting by, day by day. Sometimes we can get overwhelmed with the big picture; the overall end result and it may be such a huge task we would rather just not start at all. Instead we need to just focus on the immediate issue at hand; the “now” situation. Focus on it, handle it, and then move onto the next. Before you know it, you have accomplished the big picture goal and you’re ready to tackle the next one. Dust off that list of “things to do” you’ve had stuck to the fridge or hidden under that pile of papers and envelopes on the end of the counter, choose one, and start working on it, one “turn of the screwdriver” at a time. And the next time you’re in San Diego, don’t miss a visit to Balboa Park!
