Deciding to ‘lighten-up’ on a grand scale was a big decision. The action-steps are even bigger and more monster-like than I imagined.
The regular, at least 3 hours a month, is working well. However, it is just Not enough. Do we have that much ‘stuff’? Maybe. No, that ought to be definitely! (Okay. I can’t even talk [out loud] about the mountains of ‘affluenza’ we’ve accumulated in the 12 years we’ve been together. Can’t deal today.)
Some things are harder to purge than others. Photos and memorabilia are this month’s gut-wrench. I am working through it. It is proving bigger than me … so far. A lot of these photos and memory-makings haven’t been looked at for years!!! Yet the idea of purging them is actually painful. (And I’m the one who is usually so open and free about ‘clean-sweeping’ my life on a regular basis.) What the heck is up with that?
My current solution is to scan the important ones, even maybe the not-so-important, but I just can’t bring myself to part with them ones and purge the easier ones. Seems like a plan. My scan pile is too big already.
Digital technology will make this a whole lot easier now. Generally, more and more, people don’t have stacks and shoe boxes and bins filled with photos anymore. eFiles take a whole lot less space. ‘Course it makes it pretty tempting to justify keeping everything. “What?” “It’s only eFiles. They don’t take much room and I don’t have time for sorting and dumping.”
Ya. My eFile storage, which used to fit on floppies, then zips, is now a terabyte!
Jun 16, 01:05PM PDT | 0 comments
Yesterday, my morning pages were something straight out of the creative life of a fully awake, fully functioning, brilliantly inspired, totally ‘on’ Creative!!! It was a thing of beauty all around. What a tremendous joy! Today, I am still oozing out all over from the bursting with creative juice.
Anyone who knows me, even a little, knows that I mostly struggle with ‘having to do’ morning pages. There are days when I just (force myself to) settle down and get it done. This is as opposed to whining and fighting and calling Julia Cameron (author of the Artist’s Way who insists that the practice of doing morning pages is invaluable as a tool of the working Artist) all sorts of ‘bad’ names. And there days of pages filled with insight and ideas. They don’t happen often enough (for me.) Okay. Agreed. I’m impatient and hard on myself. (What’s your point?)
Don’t get me wrong. Doing morning pages is not as ‘bad’ as I make it out to be. I’m just being a whiney brat who wants to flit from thing to thing and sprinkle creative dustings (read: masterpieces) out of myself with great ease and flow. In my fantasy, it’s a romantic, slightly Gaussian blur, lavender, blues and pinks scene with a misting of silver and copper. In reality, I’m sometimes ‘in the zone’ sometimes not and often in between states … on my way to another – just like most Creatives.
Yesterday though, was magnificent. The flow started as soon and I hit the page … and didn’t let up until I was at the “Thanks, God, for everything – even the stuff that’s poopy.” The beginnings of a new eBook practically wrote itself! I’m still stunned. What ‘magic’ was this? Is it because I’d decided to try one of my Artist Kin’s (from my recent hosting of The Artist Way JA – AP/09) approach to morning pages – love the pages; en-joy!!! them; relish them; look forward to them … ? Is it because I’ve now been doing this for enough days in a row that the onion finally got peeled back enough? Is it that Life just gives presents, or is that presence, sometimes – like little gifts? Heck if I know.
Well, that was yesterday. Today, it’s already 9:45 am and I’m sitting here writing this … instead of doing my morning pages. ARGH! I feel the not having done the pages ‘on my back’. All I really want to do is work on the idea that came to me yesterday – Not do the disciple of keeping a good habit in place!!! Boring! (That’s the brat talking.)
May 14, 09:51AM PDT | 1 cheer | 0 comments
I do have intent to grow food. I am an eco-holic. Everything that I’ve ever managed to grow has been done in spray-free, companion-planting manner. I definitely want to grow what we eat. I’m not a heat lover, though (makes sense … DE birthday – in Canada!;).
Living in the Okanagan Valley (BC) is quite the challenge just to stay ‘alive’:) It is, normally, so hot here, in the summer that I barely go outside. Sunstroke gets me pretty quick. Not sure how I’ll get this goal accomplished. Somehow …
Apr 14, 11:21AM PDT | 0 comments
I'm doing 33 things
