Pausing

Posted on April 8, 2024 by hafong

It’s day 8 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge and I got day 48 of #the100dayproject under my belt. These challenges are working for me. Putting my commitments in writing and making them visible make me more accountable. It’s strengthing my perseverance muscle. When I feel myself reverting to my old ways or thinking of doing it, something inside gives me pause. In my mind’s eye, I see my written words. And I am saved from falling into the same hole again.

I need not to paint a master piece or write a great piece that will go viral. Something small will do just as well in keeping me moving along. I’ve been going into the greenhouse daily in the mornings. Sometimes I just want to have a look around. Other mornings I plant a few seedlings before the call for breakfast. In a few days a whole bed is planted with snowpeas, spinach, radish and Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli). The overcast sky this morning was perfect for transplanting. The young seedlings will take better without a hot sun.

Pausing works for turning around my bad attitude. I hear my whine and grump. It doesn’t sound so nice. It’s voiced but it doesn’t have to continue. I can stop and say I’ll be better the next time.

Against the Flow

Posted on April 6, 2024 by hafong

It’s day 6 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Only 24 more days to go and 54 more days for #the100dayproject. I’m experiencing a malaise and a dip in my spirit. In these moments I wonder why I put these commitments upon myself. It would be so much easier if I go with the flow. It would be but I do know where that could lead – stagnation. And it is just not me – to go with the flow. I’m prickly, sometimes known as an eccentric person.

What I need when malaise hits is action. Though I don’t advocate shopping on Amazon as a solution, that’s what I did. I bought an electric kettle and Lyn Slater’s book on How to Be Old. I was waiting for the paperback version but I decided I need to read it now. So ping! Now it’s on my Kindle. Not sure how useful it will be. Not alot of super reviews on Goodreads.What triggered my dippy mood is reminders of aging and what that could mean. I had a visit with my 92 year old mother yesterday. The conversation was largely about aging, declining strength, vitality and meaning of life. It left me feeling blue and deflated, wondering on how to age well. That’s when I remembered Lyn Slater, the accidental icon.

It’s good that the morning was sunny. I’ve started my daily early morning visits to the greenhouse before breakfast. Today I transplanted my radishes into the bed. After I thought I better do my stretches before I lose my oomph. It’s the first time in many months that I have no pain in my left foot. I had plantar fasciitis since before Christmas. Just as it was finally resolving, I stubbed my little toe on the same foot. Took 5 weeks for it to heal. I am motivated to keep pain away by doing my daily stretches.

Now it is almost 4 in the afternoon. We took a little drive out of the city to Crossmount to look at some paintings and pottery on display. We had some dessert at the restaurant and walked around outside after. There was quite a few people out enjoying the sunshine and the cider house. I’m feeling refreshed and renewed.

Inspiration, Perspiration

Posted on April 4, 2024 by hafong

My wish for rain came true. It’s cloudy as can be with rain coming down. It’s as if the whole world is weeping. There is that much sadness in the world but I must not give into that sadness. I must use it to inspire myself into better. I must pull myself up by the bootstraps. When inspiration does not work, there’s the perspiration of hard work. It works. It’s in the mindset.

I’m off on a better start today. It helps to know and accept oneself. I have. Knowing that I feels things deeply and have the propensity for melancholia, I’ve always have had to work hard to maintain a positive outlook. Good cheer and energy does not come naturally to me. I have learned to compensate for the lack. Perhaps it’s not such a bad thing. Having to work for it have built good habits and resilience in me. I do worry about maintaining it as I age.

My saving graces are my love of learning and self-improvement. I have this thirst for knowledge and how to do better. I’ve been reading Jim Kwik’s Limitless and Stan Goldberg’s Preventing Senior Moments: How to Stay Alert into Your 90s and Beyond. Both emphasize what a miracle our brain is. Did you know that the world’s fastest supercomputer requires 24 million watts of power to operate, but our brain only requires 20 and is a hundred thousand times faster than a computer? I wonder why we are dumbing ourselves by our dependence on the computer for everything. Why don’t we upgrade our own softwares by actively using our brain more?

Feeling Lazy

Posted on April 3, 2024 by hafong

Photo by Creative Workshop on Pexels.com

It is only day 3 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m feeling lazy and sluggish with nary a thought or idea in my head. It is Wordless Wednesday -a day to share an image or images that speak for themselves. That should make an easy post, but I can’t even come up with any of interest. I did snap some photos of going through the carwash. I thought I could call it The Tunnel of Love. It would be perfect. We’re locked in and soaped up. Nobody could see in. But the photos were soapy and boring. The tunnel short – maybe all of 5 minutes.

Then I have my #the100dayproject wherein I paint a picture a day for 100 days. I’m sagging there, too, on day 44. I’m feeling lackadaisical, not in the mood. What to do? There’s no point in pouting. Nobody cares. I won’t give up. So I’ve prepped a small piece of watercolour paper with gesso. Waiting for it to dry. I am a wee bit motivated, having seen Paul Trottier’s art exhibit, Joy and Sorrow at St. Thomas More Gallery. I was quite moved by all his paintings. I hope it is enough to carry me through this slump.

I grasp at anything, however small, when malaise knocks me off my feet. A cup of coffee and a piece of toast is calling me. And I have to go and close the vents in the greenhouse. The temperature is going down. It has been a warm day with a high of 19℃. Most of the snow are gone. I had the shade cloth down and 5 vents opened. It’s been above 30℃ most of the afternoon. Now it is 24℃. Time to raise the cloth and close up.

A Wakening

Posted on April 1, 2024 by hafong

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

April 1, Fool’s Day and first day of the April Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’ve signed up again, committing to write a post a day for the month. It’s a good practice for the brain and the spirit. As usual I have no plans as I have no business or products to promote. I am going to show up each day and chat. Hopefully I will have a rapt audience. Why not, eh? One should aim for the moon, if one is going to aim at all.

It is Easter Monday. I wonder if it is the day Jesus rose from the dead. I like to think so. Easter has lost much of its meaning for me. I felt a flatness where once I felt a reverence all through Lent to the whole of Easter. Not this year or last year. I have not notice whence it disappeared. But today, I feel a bit of quickening, a wakefulness, a tiny bit of interest and joy from within. Perhaps, like Jesus, I’m rising from the dead, the deadness of the spirit.

I feel spring is finally here. I think I hear the running of the sap. Maybe it’s my own blood circulating. The sun is shining bright. My planted seeds are germinating and bursting forth. The greenhouse is 30+℃ with 2 vents opened. I’m looking forward to planting my snowpeas later in the day when it is a bit cooler. I will not have to worry and fuss about temperatures dropping below 0 at night. I am a happy camper.

It is an auspicious start for the month. I am hopeful, my flatness and glumness dispelled. Time to wrap up, have a snack and tackle the greenhouse.

LAST DAY – Working Hard

Posted on January 31, 2024 by hafong

It’s the last day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am still working hard at it. Now that I have the habit of showing up every(almost) day, it’s a good idea of keeping up the momentum. The challenge can be about showing up every day for writing, painting or/and for working at my paper clutter.

I have already started on the paper clutter, starting with the bills. I discovered that I forgot last month’s. I don’t know what’s happened to me. Is it that I am getting old and losing mental clarity? Is it that I have let things slip and slide too long? It is probably a combination of both and much more. It doesn’t really matter what the reason(s) is. What matter is that it is out of control. I have to pull up my socks, buckle up and get to work on it – today. Tomorrow never comes.

January has been a great month. I wrote 30 posts out of 31 days. I started an acrylic painting class. I had looked forward to it before it started. I hated going when it started. Now I am comfortable and having fun in it. I’m a bit of a weird duck. In January I cross country skied only twice. Now the snow is melting. There will not be much skiing this winter. I am not completely heart broken because finally in the last few days, I can walk without pain. My plantar fasciitis has finally resolved. Pain free is good.

Thanks to Paul, our great maestro for leading us this month. Thanks to all who participated and conversed with me. I think this is the most enjoyable round for me. Having read the Atomic Habits helped a great deal. I’ve let go of many bad habits in my head if not in real life. You must have heard the saying, Change your thoughts, change your life. It really does work.

Day 31 – the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

ALMOST THERE

Posted on January 30, 2024 by hafong

It is January 30th, a sunny and 6℃ out. The greenhouse is registering 18.5℃. It had reached a high of 23.2℃ at 1:30pm. It has not been in the negative today. Looks and feels like spring. Who would have thought that February will be the warmest month of winter. I remembered February 2019 was the coldest.

I better get my ass in gear and get ready to start seeds. But once again or should I say, I’m still mired in clutters in my environment as well as in my head. I’ve just cleared the dining room table of the paper clutter and my painting stuff. That means I’ve just moved them somewhere else – to be dealt with later. Famous last words. But what can I do? Habits are hard to fix. I am working on them. I can’t put everything on hold until I’m fixed. I have to proceed as best as I can.

I’ve finished #2 of my landscape series. I’m pretty happy with it. The paints are put away for another day. I will work on those habits for the next few days. One more day and the Ultimate Blog Challenge will be finished. Surely I can show up tomorrow. Then I can claim success, missing just one day. On other fronts, I have not succeeded in losing 5 pounds in January. I think I’ve only shed one or two. It’s better than none. So like Bugs Bunny would say, That’s all, folks. Here’s my finished painting.

PLAYING IN THE FIELD OF THE LORD

Posted on January 29, 2024 by hafong

I’m messing around with more paint, starting on #2 for my series of perhaps 10 landscapes. It’s part of the homework for my acrylic painting class. The process is very meditating and playful. As I am swirling my brush through the paint on my palette, the phrase of playing in the fields of the lord popped into my head. I felt I was playing in reverence with our Lord.

The phrase came from At Play in the Fields of the Lord, a movie I saw long ago. It’s based on the book written by Peter Matthiessen. Sounds like a good read. I have the movie on cassette. Not sure whether I’m up to watching it again. I remembered it was long and hard to sit through it all. However, I am intrigued by the book and have reserved it from the library.

Day 29 – the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

HOW TO KEEP GOING

Posted on January 28, 2024 by hafong

I have 4 more posts to write for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Today is a tough one. I have no idea what to write and I am not in the mood. You think I’m a teenager with attitude. I feel plumb out of metal. I don’t even have a bit of rust to write about. So I went searching on how to write when I don’t feel like it. Here’s what I found:

Find Your “Creative Nook” …
Make It Your Job. …
Take a deep breath. …
Hang Out With Other Writers. …
Sit With the Pain and Grief
Have some sort of ritual or routine to get them into the writing mood.
Write about it .
Plan.
Free write
Pull out your laptop, notebook or whatever it is that you like writing on, and just start writing!

I do have a writing nook and am sitting with pain and grief. Sometimes I do write about it but not today. My problem is I never have a plan. I often just sit at the keyboard and tap away. Sometimes just gibberish but sometimes I write some good stuff. Today is not the day. Today I’m just getting by.

Day 28 – the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

GROUNDING SATURDAY

Posted on January 27, 2024 by hafong

A lazy Saturday spent resting in hopes of recouping my energy and not falling ill. I felt immediately better when I made the decision to rest. I was not totally idle the whole day. I did some homework on grounding for my painting class. How appropriate, eh? There’s so many other ways to ground oneself besides laying down on the ground. Here’s an excellent article on grounding.

Immersing myself in creating is very grounding. I am connected to the earth and to the riverbanks I am painting. Then I pop in Sheba. She’s still in transition, needing more work. I’m walking along with her. It is very restful and refreshing.

Here’s my grounding work. Acrylics on Arches 300 lb. cold press watercolour paper.

Day 27 – the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

onethousandandtwo

Looking at Infinity

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