Connected and Committed

the before xmas after christmas sales

I went for a textile and color recharge during the holiday and found these items that helped the effort along:

And this lovely street Santa was out in a park, complete with bench blanket and book of who was naughty or nice.

She wanted a new lipstick.

entryway!

how many can there be?

Lots of time being spent in places like Home Depot lately - I had no idea there were at least 144 possibilities that white might grace your walls without actually being white.

reaching

One of the most gratifying elements about this website and blog endeavor is when there is evidence that what I do is reaching people, and hopefully they are getting value from what they see, like these stat pages from the control panel of my website would indicate:

 

I sent out my latest newsletter on the 14th, and yowzah!!! look at those numbers :~)

And here are the places they are visiting from:

Days like yesterday make all the background work and brainstorming and effort and time worthwhile :~)

trusses!

company party

This afternoon we were frolicking at the company holiday party at the local outlet mall's video game arcade extravaganza.

This is one of the games we could have played for free, all afternoon. I made my contribution to my team and won the first round of the bobsled races. Next round we didn't fare so well.

 

This is one of the prizes we could have won had we been the general public.

So, it was time for some shopping. Or rather some mall walking with some window shopping.

Do not attempt to adjust your screens - this is really how this clock looks. Pretty funky.

Fake plants AND fake water. What a bargain.

Unfortunately, the shot of the tanning-bed-turned-water-massage-as-in-car-wash-jets-table didn't turn out. I overheard the retail representative attempting to talk someone into getting in for seven minutes of massage heaven, but no takers.

rooms!

self-coaching

Before I knew about the existence the art-everyday-for-a-year group last week, I'd picked up this book at the library - Coaching the Artist Within, by Eric Maisel. I came across this passage the other night, and wanted to share it:

"Many people who hope to create seem to lack the energy. They have a ton of energy for their tennis game, their shopping spree, or their poker night, but as soon as they think about the novel they intend to write they find that they need to take a nap. What are they experiencing? What does a person mean when she says," I'm too tired to write" or, "I just don't have the energy to create?" As a creativity self-coach, you are obliged to understand the relationship between energy and creativity...

If it seems strange to you that it requires mental energy to sit still..., think of the mental energy required of you not to scream, "Stop this, already!" in a boring meeting or not to blurt out, "Say something, already!" at a tedious lecture. We know that we are using up real energy in such situations and that the energy we are expending is mental, not physical. Such events mentally exhaust us and can prevent us from returning to our regular work. We use up our whole store of mental energy doing nothing more physical than not leaving the conference room or lecture hall.

We require mental energy to do everything from not leaving a lecture to writing a symphony. A person who actively makes meaning  is obliged both to generate more mental energy and to expend more mental energy than someone who settles for  received wisdom. When we say that a person is powerful, passionate, charismatic, energized, and so on, we are making note of the mental energy made visible, a wattage as real as that of the sun. An active meaning-maker  is powerful, just as the sun is powerful, and for the same reason: processes at work produce power...

Mental activity requires -- and then uses up -- mental energy.  It takes mental energy to think, to imagine, to calculate, to fantasize. It also takes a real expenditure of valuable mental energy to maintain half-hearted beliefs, to ignore important truths, to procrastinate, to not pursue your dreams. Keeping a defensive lid on life is real work and a real energy drain. No one tires out more completely than the person who knows she ought to make meaning in a certain way but refuses to do so, unless it is the person who wages internal war about whether it would be better to pursue this or that meaning-making route."  - pp. 73-77

That part about the sun, and someone's mental energy made visible - shining, as it were - that's the part that struck me the most. When you are doing what it is your soul wants you to do, you shine from that energy, you can't help it. And that's what we are all here to do.

Leave the lecture hall, people.

magical

One of my coworkers brought in this IKEA lamp today for his office. It takes my breath away. The photo just doesn't do justice to the intensity and vibrancy of the glass and the color (trust me, the photo at IKEA doesn't do it either). Amazing stuff. When I walked past the doorway, the first time I saw it up on the wall, I was literally crying!

what a surprise

From a prophylactic ad:

"Note: The Vibrating ring is not available in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia. "

Oklahoma, where the women have a choice.

artful living

Wahhhh - my digital camera is on the fritz - it's stuck in the open position - how weird is that? Hopefully it won't take too much effort to get it working again, and soon.

Come January 2006, I am going to be focusing on artful living, via a Yahoo group I joined sponsored by one of my Artella friends, Rachel - DailyDevotions365days, it's called. The intention is to consciously produce art every day, and then reflect on that process. Art, meaning a doodle on your shopping list that takes 4 minutes to do, to full-blown pieces that might hang publicly somewhere. Or beads, or a quilt, whatever. I'm going to open up the definition of art a bit further and include consciously choosing to live as much of the day as I can in my-ness: doing the things that help me make meaning of my life, help me live it as true to myself as I can, help me stay awake rather than asleep to who I am, help me make choices that line up with what I say I want to do.

Of course part of the reflection process will be to observe Resistance when it shows up - when will I flake out in front of the TV instead of doing something that feeds my soul? How many days might go by in a stretch before I do art again? How do I manage to stay spiritually awake, and how do I manage to go asleep again? Where is the dividing line, and what's usually happening then?

Maybe I'll come up with a rating system that I can quickly do everyday in a journal, like "3" would mean moderate effort needed to get back on the creativity horse; "5" would mean there's some kind of demon dragging me down; "1" would mean there are words and/or colors and/or music and/or encounters with people just flyin' today.

Maybe I'll use this blog as my journal, I don't know. The various paper kinds I've scouted out seem inadequate to the task. If I collage, I can add the photo or scan here. If I write, I can put it here. If I experience something that truly makes my heart open up, I can put it here.

Every day. That can seem daunting, but the perfectionist expectations in all of us are actually what's daunting. It's not so difficult to put 350 words on a piece of paper every day. It's not so difficult to put some paint on a canvas board everyday. It's not so difficult to cook an artful meal everyday - it's what part of our minds tell us about doing those things that can be difficult, drain our energy. And a year from now, what art will exist in the world because I chose to allow it, rather than get caught up in the why's and wherefore's.

What else would I really rather be doing anyway? Grousing about not doing it, or actually doing it? The effort is the same - or maybe, the grousing is more taxing - so why not choose what's going to enhance my spirit in the process? If there are days, or even months, that go by where nothing is going on on the surface, that doesn't mean that there isn't something going on subterraneously.

Care to join me?

floor!

Another foot of snow has fallen since this shot was taken. How do they do it? I don't know. Maybe a pint of beer makes the cold tolerable.

yes

Patriotism at its best. A heart and a head.

joists!!!

Isn't that the most amazing thing?!  A floor - our floor!

windows!

More snow, but windows!!!

colors

It's not the same as in person, but it will do :~)

There's a weird effect since the fabric is sheer and you can see the berber carpet underneath :~)

This is another thriftstore find. Haven't been to one of those places lately - must go.

My boss left the company yesterday, under weird circumstances (not his doing, those circumstances) - what I call cloak-and-dagger stuff that happens when people are let go, or even leave of their own volition, like he did. It's like we're supposed to pretend these people didn't exist at all, and go on as if that were so. That just doesn't sit well with me. I didn't cut my teeth in the corporate environment, so whenever this happens I marvel at the numbness these policies are meant to induce. Not buyin' it.

We'll miss you boss, but as you can see, you made the right choice.