tools

THE PLEASURE OF STARTING/WRITING

January 7. Day 7 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I think I have to stop counting the days. It makes everything feel more difficult than they actually are. And I have to stop thinking of this as a challenge. I write for the pleasure of it. It is not a job. I am not selling or promoting anything. I am not good at explaining how anything works. There’s much written or am being written about how things work and what is good for us. There is no need for me to do the same. I shall take a big deep breath, relax and just let the words flow. No need to worry if it is a good topic or if anybody will read it. If the words won’t cooperate, I might have to work and coax them out.

My partner like to build things. He built our passive solar greenhouse. Then a shed with a living roof. Right now he’s building a boat. He’s built two before. I like to build, too. Building is a man thing but it is also a woman thing. We use different tools. Oh, some of us use hammers and saws, too, but I like to use my keyboard and Bernini. I build with words that turn into sentences, paragraphs and hopefully into a post and a story. I haven’t aim toward a book – yet. It’s not an impossibility but I like things short and snappy. It’s like my quilt squares or little paintings. Each can stand on its own or I can put them together to form a quilt, an album and if I have enough posts, I could build a book.

after

It’s a pretty good idea, no? Right now I’m very disorganized and helter skelter but not so much that I can’t make a start on it. It is never too late and there is no perfect time to start. Starting is the operative word. I’ve written 3 posts on my travel to Ghana in 2011. I could use my photos to jog my memory to write more this month. It would be useful to have a theme for each month’s posts. The trick is getting started. Once started, I am often surprised how easy it is. One thing leads to another and I find myself on something different than I had intended. But I take it. I like the pleasure of being surprised by myself. I like the pleasure of starting. It gives me a sense of direction, a sense of purpose.

MEANWHILE

I woke up to snow and -8℃! Happily it was 4.4℃ in the greenhouse. Of course it dropped a bit until the sun rises. There is no sun today. It is almost 10:30 and the greenhouse is sitting at 5.6℃. I hope the sun will make a showing later on. Meanwhile the covers stays on everything for extra warmth. I had brought in my trays of seeding last night. Everything is an experiment this spring. I wonder if the cooler temperatures at night in the greenhouse affect the germination. Will I have to reseed them? Time will tell. I have time.

Meanwhile the world still turns. Covid-19 is still here and still rising. Our province’s stats are not good at all. Despite this, there are still anti-mask people protesting about their freedom. The news from Brazil is alarming. There are more than 2, 200 deaths daily from Covid-19. Then there’s rising Asian hate in the U.S. and Canada. It is very hard to understand and digest all this. I guess it is all right for me to have a blue funk day once in awhile. Life is hard. Now life is harder. But it can be an opportunity to see as we’ve never seen before. We are all captured and captivated by this virus. There is no discrimination, no borders unbound.

Meanwhile, I am happy to see that my blogger friend, Minna from Suddenly Mad is still writing. She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer in 2016. It has been progressing, affecting her balance and walking. She started babbling incoherently in 2018. It has not affected her ability to write or draw though, but her posts are coming slower and further apart. I have learned much from them. They are very rich. Minna is an artist and was a professor at a university in New York. Then last summer, her husband/caregiver was diagnosed with lung cancer. They are both carrying on.

We all have our hard spots. My little episodes of blue funk are really nothing but a glitch in the day. They are like the clouds that drift in and out of the sky. Perfects I need them to anchor and remind me of what it is to be alive. I’m fortunate to have the tools of writing and photography to record my highs and lows. I am the weather girl.

CHINESE NEW YEAR/CONVERSATIONS/FEELINGS

Happy Chinese New Year to all my Chinese family and friends wherever you are. The morning is awashed with bright sunshine. It is only -24 degrees Celsius, quite a bit warmer than yesterday’s -40 C. My world looks so white, clean and peaceful. And yet it is not. The Coronavirus is still a threat amongst us. life and death goes on.

I hope I am not sounding morbid and pessimistic. I am not. I am feeling a bit strange and in limbo. It is not something new. I do go through such now and again. It’s a discomfort, like something is hanging over me that I’m avoiding. It’s because I’m such a procrastinator, always putting off little things until they get big. It’s true that you can put things under the carpet, but not out of your mind. They will nag and nibble at you. That’s what I’m feeling. Every time I resolve things, I vow not to let it happen again. I might as well save my breath. It does happen again because I am only too human.

It doesn’t mean that I should give up altogether. I am here at the keyboard earlier in the day. I am trying to have a conversation again. It’s good for our mental health to talk, to voice and share our ideas. But I’m not really in love with the way we communicate nowadays. For some people keeping in touch means ‘copy and paste’, sending stickers/videos/clips/attachments on Messenger, Instagram, text messages. Most of the time, there are no explanation or personal message. It doesn’t tell me anything about the sender or why I’m getting it.

We should not assume what we find interesting and useful would be the same for another. Think again before you hit that SEND button. Am I doing a service or disservice? Am I really being thoughtful or am I really thinking of myself? Different strokes for different folks. I think it would be good to remember etiquette is the same on all communication tools. I hope that I am also respectful in what and how I am communicating, but maybe I’m not. Perhaps those ‘unfriending’ on FB was a message. We all live with the consequences of our actions.

I have done well today. I hope I can keep it up and build on it. It is after lunch. I have done Chinese takeout for my parents and ourselves. It’s a chance for me to check on them without appearing so when I drop off the food. It was my mother who used to drop off stuff for me New Year and other occasions. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Children become the parents and vice versa. My brother will be dropping supper for them tonight. We celebrate together somehow.

I have skied 3 laps around the park this afternoon. An extra lap for prosperity. I’m trying to build stamina and speed. I did not gain any speed but am keeping my time under 11 minutes/lap. You would think I was training for the Olympics. LQOL (laughing quite out loud). It was quite lovely today being at least 10 degrees warmer and less wind. It was easier breathing and I didn’t get quite as frosty as yesterday. Scroll on the arrow to see.

LIFE, DEATH AND TRASH

I was surprised that I did sleep well last night. But my worms are alive and wiggling again this morning. Our province and I’m sure other parts of the country are awashed with grief. 15 people were killed over the weekend when the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team bus collided with a transport truck. There are no words to describe but I’ll try to tap dance my way out. It serves no purpose to be caught in darkness and hopelessness. I might as well get on with shedding my mental and physical trash.

I have never found an easy journey, not any that’s worth travelling. First of all, you have to know your destination, where you want to arrive or achieve. Then you have to know the directions and how to’s. You would need a vehicle or tools. Do you have enough fuel or the desire. These are the considerations before you start out. I have failed in the past because lack of planning and thinking out the steps. Now that I know better, how am I doing?

I like to think I’m doing better. I know I am doing very well. I have a destination. I have tools. I have focus. I have read 70% of Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. It contains very good information of how and why we became who we are. Understanding is the key to any procedure/change. It is the aha/lightbulb moment. It is tricky though. Now I see. Then I don’t see. I’ve had to give things a rest until I see again. It is difficult but I am persistent in emptying my mental trash along with my physical and computer trash.

It is almost noon. Time to think about and prepare lunch. My Roomba is going up and down the hall, having vacuumed the bedroom and the bathroom. Cleanliness is next to holiness in my humble opinion. No more trash is my new motto.

 

C is for COMPLACENT, K is for KICKASS

This is the end of my alphabet serie, I promise – for awhile anyways. It’s hard to drop a good thing. Sue Grafton’s “alphabet series” is a kickass when I fall into a complacent mood. I want to emulate her character, Kinsey Millhone, my ideal of a kickass detective and single woman. I love the full cast of characters in her novels, especially Henry, Kinsey’s landlord. I’m getting to be quite a fan of Grafton.  She is very interesting. Too bad I’m such a Joanie come lately. She passed away on December 28, 2017 at the age of 77. Her alphabet stopped at Y is for Yesterday. I haven’t read it yet but I’ve requested it from the library.

Winter Everything gets under my skin from time to time. It’s helpful to have tools that can propel me out of the pit into light on those dark days. I am delighted to add Grafton’s detective series to my toolbox. It’s so easy to fall into complacency, not care and just watch the dirt grow between my toes. It’s not a pretty sight or place to be. I use whatever tools I can to stay aloft. Sometimes it’s Wonder Woman. Snoopy works, too. Now I can add Kinsey Millhone to the list. Have detective, will travel.

It’s late. My brain is overworked and tired. Let me end on a high note rather than a low one. I hope to wake up rested and bushy eyed tomorrow. I hope to make it to my exercise class in the morning. Let me rephrase that. I will make it to my exercise class in the morning. I want to kickass.

IN AND OUT OF THE WOODS

IMG_1262I’m back from the woods again. I can feel the vibrations of busyness as I enter the city limits – the hum of electricity and traffic. I can smell the aroma of fast food and concrete along Idylwyld Drive. The quiet and coolness of the woods are left far behind – along with the sweet scent of spruce pine needles.

Still, I am happy to be amid all of this.  It is good to feel the life force that drives the city. It ables me to appreciate the serenity of the country.  In its quietness, Sheba’s excited bark cuts and reverberates through the air as she chases squirrels up the trees. There is no sweeter sound than the quiet.

I can be happy in or out of the woods.  Too much of either makes me sing the blues. Life can get equally crazy and unbalanced out in the ‘wilderness’ as well as in the city. The big ‘cabins’ with their satellite dishes, green lawns, boats moored at the ends of long docks, etc. give testimony that the simple life is not so simple.  They are extensions. It is hard impossible to get away from all the stuff – the wants gnawing inside ourselves.

IMG_6846Am I any different?  I like to think so.  Maybe I am naive, unwilling to admit to my own cravings.  I am just human after all.  I am not immune.  It is good to ‘get away’, back home to familiarity, to sit and let things be, to be grounded, to tend to my inner as well as my outer garden – to care for my ‘self’. I am loving and honouring myself as Sandra Ingerman advises in her September Transmutation Newsletter. 

IMG_1178I am happy and content to be here in this moment.  Happiness is portable.  It travels with me – in and out of the woods.  I am cleaning and weeding my inner and outer world.  It is so exciting.  I tap, tap like a woodpecker on my keyboard.  The empty screen fills with my words, thoughts and pictures.  Amazing! I see the building of my life story before my eyes. My hands are my tools.

Life is good in or out of the woods.  Where are you now?

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