Scout Moves

This is me at the age of two with a cat and a dog I don't remember. They were our pets when we lived in Alabama. It has nothing to do with my subject for today, but it's darn cute! I'm stuck on the box of cards that was passed around during my family holiday, so here is another question. If you were alone in a cabin for a year, what would you do with your time? My niece was asked this question, and she said she would be busy chopping firewood. She had seen a show about families who lived as pioneers for a year, and their biggest mistake was underestimating the amount of firewood they would need just to survive. Let's say you were fully stocked with firewood and food and water. Your roof was intact, the logs were sufficiently chinked, and the windows were sealed. Then what would you do with your time? I would assume there would be no Internet service, so blogging and reading CNN.com would be out of the question. For me that would leave playing my horn, learning to paint,...

makes everything better. I have always been a very fearful person--afraid of my shadow, afraid of peripheral vision, afraid of spiders, afraid of snakes, afraid of deep water, afraid of roller coasters, afraid of public speaking, afraid of claustrophia-enducing enclosures, afraid of being seen or heard or criticized. A few years ago I wrote a story about an attempt to conquer my fears. Just writing the little piece was cathartic, but once I set out to chip away at all the little demons that plagued me, I quickly learned that facing them head on was the only solution. Tackling each one despite gripping anxiety would go a long way to recondition my responses to perceived threats, crawling things, putting my head under water. Last night I went to an orchestra rehearsal for this coming weekend's Christmas concert . It was the first rehearsal in which I would play 2nd horn instead of 4th, and the bell of my horn would be facing a player with a masters in horn performance. I was concern...