Relative Something

The first day back at work after the weekend always feels a lot like a Monday, doesn’t it? Yesterday morning I found myself sitting in my car for an extra ten minutes outside the front door of my workplace, delaying the inevitable. It was a beautiful morning, and I had a beautiful weekend. I was able to enjoy it for a few extra minutes.

One of the highlights of the day was entirely unrelated to work, and directly related to relatives. I received a new message via Ancestry.com from a descendant of my great, great-grandfather, Stephen W. Hays. This person discovered my records at Ancestry.com, where I have uploaded some images of our ancestors. She had the very same pictures and was able to name people in one of them that I had only been able to guess about. My guess was wrong, according to her. Now I know.

One of the low points of the day was also entirely unrelated to work. I guess that’s good. I discovered another broken finger nail. That’s 2 in the last few days. I keep my nails long on three fingers and the thumb of my right hand for fingerpicking guitar, even when I haven’t been playing for a month or two. I have had a very good run of long, strong nails until, ironically, I finally actually want to use them to play guitar. Now, days away from my bike trip, I’ve had two different nails tear. I guess I’ll be relying on my flatpicking technique next week. 

If it is true that it takes an average of 6 months for a finger nail to grow from the base to the tip, does recent failure of my nails reveal a deficiency in my diet originating in January? When they are feeling solid and strong, does that mean I was eating a well-rounded, healthy diet 6 months before?

When you do this long enough, the changes in strength of the finger nails becomes noticeable, and if you pay close enough attention, it can offer an illuminating reference for the varying quality of your diet. If I were obsessed enough about it, I could log my food choices and 6 months later, match it with a grade on quality of my nails to see what I’m eating that is good or bad for them. My guess is that it would reveal the obvious. Healthy food choices are already common knowledge. If I just stuck with healthy food choices, I’m betting the quality of my finger nails would be high. It’s not rocket science.

I don’t do so well with taking action today for results 6-months down the road. It’s one of my downfalls in writing for magazine publications. Their lead time is so dang long, I have difficulty managing the time shift required.

How do you remain in the moment when it takes finger nails so long to grow? When they are strong and solid, I’m enjoying both moments; the current one and the one 6-months prior.