thursday goodness

THURSDAY’S THINGS

• e-hugs from a much missed friend
• a mid-afternoon gift of a dark chocolate truffle treat
• taking pictures of stunning cloud formations
• making a coffee and chocolate milkshake for dinner
• napping on the couch

Even when it’s somewhat hard to do, looking for for good stuff is a way more rewarding journey I think. Here’s hoping for good stuff from the weekend …

 

Got a little behind …been struggling with a heat and humidity wave. That always does me in. But still there good things to focus on.

TUESDAY

• watching little bunnies eating breakfast as I walk from the parking garage to work
• welcome lunches
• a new artjournal book that combines mixed-media, photography, and poetry
• whole grain Tostitos
• coffee ice cream

WEDNESDAY

• iced coffee
• swishy skirts
• the generosity of new co-workers
• the kindness of on-line friends
• tiny letter stickers

hello again

Forgive me internet, for it has been 19 days since my last blog post.

I just go through phases where I can’ t seem to get it in gear enough to post.

I was doing a lot of writing back in May when I picked up the Morning Pages habit again. And it was good. For about a month. And then I started to notice that it was just making me angry as I kept dredging up a bunch of negative stuff. Which might have been a sign I should have stuck with them, but I started to feel that I wanted to do something else.

So I’m back to art journal pages (and some new art work for my new office).

So. Journal Pages. But more than that, what I thought I would do, in an attempt to swing myself from seeing the negative to seeing the positive, is keep a daily gratitude journal here, at least for a little while. My version of that is finding “gold star moments.” Things in my day that made me happy for one reason or another. And if I make a commitment to posting them here MAYBE I’ll keep up with them. Let’s shoot for starting with the rest of this month.

So, without further ado, here’s Monday. I’ll likely post these the day after … or late in the evening, we’ll see…

MONDAY

*painkillers and air conditioners
*finally getting to watch the oh-so-excellent Game of Thrones finale episode
*starting a new book, the 2nd in the Maisie Dobbs series
*pancakes
*lightbulb moments while journaling

What were your gold star moments yesterday?

what I know today…

So I don’t know if it was something I saw surfing around the cyber-verse this morning, or something that burbled up from within, but today’s word/phrase/thing to think about is NEW BEGINNINGS.

The start of a new month seems appropriate for this.

The fact that in 11 days I start a new job, in a new department, in a new location, is surely a factor in all this.

The fact that for 21 days in May I wrote three pages a day in an attempt to clear my head and get focused seems relevant.

(That they’re supposed to be done first thing in the morning is something that is just not going to happen, at least not right now. So I think of them as daily pages and do them when I can. The last two days I’ve been fitting up my porch as a writing space. Change of pace to write outdoors. New things. New beginnings.)

and…

I’m almost six months into The Year of Joy.

What I think I’ve figured out so far, even if I haven’t usually been able to figure out how to put it in words, is that there is … and I suddenly see this graphically … That the JOY exists in the JOurneY.

Whether you plan for joy, or find it where you are, or both, the important thing is to look for it. To say “how can I make this a good day?” And then celebrate that. It’s my taco tuesday theory writ large — If there isn’t something to celebrate, MAKE a celebration anyway!

I’ve started my Project Life um, project, to keep track of the daily bits. To find things worth noting. I could be doing more, but I’m doing something, so that’s okay.

Still lots of pseudo goals. Or a goal of making better goals! But “Be Brave.” “Try new things.” “Notice the good things.” are working pretty well.

So anyway … re shouldering the metaphorical backpack and getting ready for whatever my new life brings me … and packing snacks and a journal and my camera and something to read along the way. And you guys!

Let’s GO!

16 days and counting…

(painting of the week, week #13)

So, for 16 days now I’ve been writing morning pages. Those Julia Cameron/Artist’s Way morning pages.

Well, sort of. They’re not always done in the morning, and once or twice I’ve typed them instead of writing longhand.

But I’ve done them.

And while lots of people have lots of stories about how miraculous and freeing they are, I remain a bit skeptical, but committed. Because I am really really trying not to judge to outcome. To just do them. To sit down every day with a notebook and write three pages of whatever nonsense comes into my head.

What I know, 16 days in, still holds true from other times I’ve tried to do this … I complain a lot — in these pages and about these pages.

But, on the other hand, at the very end of my pages yesterday, as I was sitting sweltering in my house, sure there was nothing much left in my brain to come out, I wrote the following words:

Tick, tock, and the red shoes on my feet.
Curtains sway in the sunlight.
The silence sucking all the sound from the room.

Outside, the leaves dance.
Inside they are only seen as reflections in pictures on the wall.
Hourglass sand slipping through time

And here I sit.

I’m not going to claim it’s great poetry. But it captured that moment. And I wouldn’t have written it if I hadn’t showed up and put words on paper.

Must be careful to not go the pages expecting anything though. Just show up. Just write. Anything that happens after that … bonus points.

And now, I have to go and write my pages for today! It will be hard on my hand, and on my brain, but I will do it, and be the better for it. And isn’t that reason enough? Miracle enough? I think so.

field trip!

One of the local woman’s groups runs this philanthropic booksale every year. It’s HUGE … 100,000 books or so, held over 4 days. Next year I should grab some footage of the arena where there hold the thing. Being easily overwhelmed … and cheap … and not in the need for more books I don’t have time to read … I go on the final day where you fill up a bag for $5.00. As I also tend to run over on my lunch hour, I can’t spend excess time browsing, which is good in the long run.

Anyway… I did a little video tonight showing off my new treasures … about half of which are destined for the scrap pile to make journal pages out of. If and when I work up the nerve to hack the books to pieces. That’s the toughest part.

Paintings, weeks #15-16

So I’ve mentioned my Painting of the Week project, yes? (I’m such a horrible blogger! LOL)

Well, last week was the first week I missed, so last night I sat down and did a two-part diptych (is that redundant?). Ink and paint on top of leftover cardboard from a box of snickerdoodle mix. I should have gesso’d it first, but I was lazy. On the plus side of that the paint and ink slid around on top of the printed side of the box and gave me some cool effects.

It turned out darker than my usual stuff … but I like it. Part of that is that I’m trying to use up a bunch of random cheapish craft paint colors, and that’s where the maroon color came from. Then my random shelf liner, sequin punch, spray top circle magic… and … voila.

The thing that I’ve found so invigorating about these, when I make the time to just sit down and do them, is to have absolutely NO idea about what I want to do. Then mostly I grab the first bottle of paint I see, and just start. I let the paint lead me. And in doing that I always end up with something I like more than if I had gone into this with a plan. Plans have their places, but I find my pages/paintings always have more energy than if I try and make them fit some kind of preconceived notion.

It’s a good lesson. For a lot of things…