It’s a rainy Saturday morning here, which I rather like - it reminds me of Vancouver, where I grew up. I’m used to misty rainy gray days, where every moment contains a hint of dusk. To me, dusk is such a magical time, when I have a chance to just sit and enjoy it.
Decluttering … or Freeing Up Energy
Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon cleaning my office. I work from home, and it was getting seriously painful looking at the stacks and stacks of books, papers and courier packages sitting on every available surface, plus portions of the floor. I somehow found room in my office bookshelves for the latest batches of books that I’ve bought recently. I also created a To Be Read corner, which helped a lot!
I stumbled on five filled notebooks - my Morning Pages from quite a few years back. It’s been a couple of years now since I’ve been doing Morning Pages, but back when I did them, I was very good about not reading them over. These scribblings definitely aren’t meant to be read over! So I had a good time tearing out all the pages, and then shredding them, although only half the pages are shredded - I burnt out the shredder! It’s fine today, and I’ll probably resume my shredding later on today.
So now I’m sitting here, at my clean desk, feeling very uncluttered. It’s remarkable how refreshing decluttering can be.
Immediately after I did my clean-up, I felt rejuvenated, as if I’d freed up some energy that had been trapped (as I’m sure it was). And I was able to write the final update on our Thanksgiving dinner at our food blog (considering our Thanksgiving here in Canada was last weekend, I definitely procrastinated on this one!): Our Bon Appetit 2008 Thanksgiving Dinner.
In addition to freeing up energy, it also felt like I’d freed up time, as well. I was able to start reading Kelly Rae’s Taking Flight, which I’ve had for a couple of weeks now. I’m not destined to really get into this book just yet, though: I put it down somewhere last night just before putting Dylan to bed, and I can’t find it anywhere now!
The rest of the evening was spent watching Die Hard (the first one) with Ward and my son Sean. Sean’s doing his individual study unit on Die Hard for his Film Studies class (all I can say is, I definitely would have enjoyed Film Studies in high school, if it had been offered!). Ward threw together some lovely appetizers for the movie, including a Tilapia Po’Boy that was just amazing, and some seared rare beef slices.
All in all, yesterday was a Very Good Day.
The Big Draw
Looking back on this week, I see that I’m behind on a few things - mainly: blogging here daily, and the Big Draw. Dylan, of course, has been far more diligent than I have been when it comes to drawing daily. He always seems to have his markers out and about, and even with days filled with games, computer time, reading, trains, playing, jumping in the leaves, eating his favorite foods, library time, clay time - he still has time to draw. He truly is an artist.
On Inspiration
I’ve been discovering something about myself (self-discoveries are always so wonderful, and it’s just amazing how there’s always more and more to discover, no matter how old you are).
Inspiration ebbs and flows for me. I recently was talking with some dear friends about this, and bringing a great deal of self-judgment into this discovery. They each nudged me back into alignment, an acceptance of all of who I am. So today, I’m at peace with the ebb and flow of inspiration in my life, and can now truly see that the down time of withdrawal is something as precious as the passionate flow of inspiration on fire.
Which, by the way, is one reason why my blogging here ebbs and flows, too!
Writing
I’ve been in prep mode for NaNoWriMo, which is coming up very soon. Since I signed up, I’ve decided on the idea that I’ll be turning into a novel. This was actually looking like quite a tough decision, as I have several gems on hand, some of which I’ve carried with me and developed for years. But interestingly enough, choosing the idea was easy. I discovered there was one idea I have, for a mainstream mystery, that just kept nagging at me. Basically, it was jumping up and down saying “pick me! pick me!”. It doesn’t get much easier than that!
So this past week, I’ve been playing around with my characters. I’ve created various mindmaps for my major characters, and I’m currently reading James Frey’s How to Write a Damn Good Mystery, which is both funny and has some good tips. I will likely begin writing my character profiles this week, and by November 1 I should be good to go for NaNoWriMo.
Bliss
This coming week, my intention is to live blissfully, in the midst of the seeming chaos of life, family and deadlines.
Tags: Art, inspired, NaNoWriMo, Spirit, the big draw, Thoughts, Writing
Good for Dylan for keeping up with the Big draw. Such cool pictures he has been doing too. Yea for Dylan.
I too find that clutter gets me down. I had cleaned up the clutter before the big draw and now it is swarming in on me again so I need to get that under control. It does seem to sap ones energy.
And I too have ebb and flows in inspriation of my Art. I think everyone must do so. Good that your friends help you get back on track. Thats what Friends are for.
Great post today.
Hi Belle and Dylan. Love Dylan’s artwork. Esp. the boat and the heart for mom. By this point in life I am of the mind that everything ebbs and flows and cycles in and out and around and back. Flow flow like a river. Whenever we think something is here to stay, wait awhile. I tend to be tidy myself except when in the midst of a project then I can get cluttered. But having cleaned out my 6 room house 4 years ago, and as most of the stuff I saved is now in storage, my own person possessions around me are relatively few. I am living, though, amidst my Mom’s stuff, all of which she has left to me. Ugh. Though not the house the stuff resides in. Go figure. So more clutter to clear out after Mom dies. Sometimes I think I’d like just one outfit, one bowl and one spoon. And a sketchbook and pen. And…..:)
love the bit about morning pages–i destroyed notebooks of mine about a year or so ago….destroyed a bunch of journals at the same time….very liberating! i will also be doing the nanowrimo!
decluttering feels so good, the problem is whenever i get rid of something, i need it the next day!!
why don’t you enter dylan’s work in illustration friday…there’s a family of three kids who enter, this week was grace’s turn…they are terrific. dad obviously does it and sorts it out and vetos comments etc…dylan would do such a good job! this week’s topic/prompt is ‘repair’.
Love, love, love Dylan’s drawings. I hope he enjoys all the compliments.
Thanks, Cris. Right now I’m sitting here and everything is STILL clean, so I’m wondering to myself, how come I don’t always keep it this uncluttered? But then I’ll get into a whirlwind of some project or other, and when that happens, it’s like a tornado strikes and I’m back to square one: totally cluttered!
Suki, sometimes I feel that way too - one outfit, one bowl, one spoon … so much easier. But then I get hungry for choices!
Mary, so glad you’re doing nanowrimo too!
And oh my goodness, Soulbrush, what an excellent idea! I’ve looked at IF but know it’s not something for me yet. But it’s perfect for Dylan, and I think we can tie it in with his learning at home, too - I just took a look at past themes, and I think we could spend part of the week teaching him about the theme, and then have him draw what it means to him. This is SUCH a great idea - I mentioned it to Ward just now and he agrees. Thank you so much.
And Lynn, absolutely, he loves all your comments and compliments!