I'm all over the place these days. Crocheting a row on Emma's blanket, then jotting down a line for a poem, or noting (on a torn corner of paper that I will never be able to find) a book I need to read, then filing just two of 50 papers that need filed, before I run upstairs to vacuum the living room, getting distracted by the Country Living magazine on the coffee table. I feel like a scattered mess. A happy scattered mess. Life is filled with so much inspiration and so many tasks that call to me at every hour of the day. How am I to chose? There are so MANY ways to throw paint on the canvas of your life — your one, precious life.
For starters I've decided to start making a daily schedule each morning to try to calm by brain. And I've made a boring but necessary new rule that I'm not allowed to start a large project without finishing another. For example I began painting all of the cabinets in our kitchen last November. There are still a few cupboard doors left to paint, but now I'm itching to look at color schemes for the basement walls and my office. Under my new rule, I must finish the kitchen before moving on to the basement. Isn't it high time we quit tripping over those cupboard doors propped in the hallway awaiting their paint job? Another example — I am not allowed to look up crochet patterns for granny square quilts (oh, that sounds sooo fun) until Emma's all snuggled in her finished blanket. It's gonna be hard, but I've gotta give it a try.
In good news the cooler weather has got me hooking away on Emma's blanket. It had been a few months since I'd crocheted and it feels darn good. I snuggle up in bed at night with my skeins of yarn and spread the blanket over my lap. Izzy likes to curl up next to me, pressing her body against my legs. I work by the yellow light of my little bedside lamp and keep a cup of hot tea beside me. It's like a little snippet of heaven. Just me, and the needle, and the yarn twisting and pulling. Creating. My mind is so present in the moment that worries and stress fall away.
Oh, I love this time of year.
The good news for us all is that today is Friday and that means we get to relax a little and enjoy larger expanses of creative time. I can't wait! Happy weekend to you, whatever your projects may be or your travels may take you. Go throw a little paint on that life of yours!
I like that quote. I have a daily and weekly list of things that need to get done. It's boring but it works, it keeps my scatter-brain in check! I think it's so much more fun to knit and crochet at this time of year, there is something about wanting to prepare for the cold winter months ahead.
ReplyDeleteI understand your scatterbrainness, I've been blaming it on menopause :) Making a list is a good idea to keep on track, I'm still working on my plan of study for this fall, I think it will include water color, quilting and walking. I love reading your posts and feel badly about not commenting often, I always reply in my head, don't you hear me talking to you that way :)
ReplyDeleteI missed this post on Friday while we were driving from Portland to Sonoma, CA. I was not familiar with the quote, but like it very much. I enjoyed watching Danny Kaye perform so much that in my early teens I wrote him a fan letter and was thrilled to receive a note back from him.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it so exciting to be alive and able to appreciate beauty and wonder and artistry and loving relationships? I want to follow your good example and defy the stress of doom and gloom with disciplined creativity, too, Jenny:)
Thanks for posting!
xx from Gracie