MoxieLife

Blogs I Love

Kind of all over the place, but these three caught my eye and I wanted to share. What are you lovin'? Leave a comment and I'll check it out.

Just yesterday I was thinking about my "design style" for my home. What I really love. The truth? Industrial spaces with older/rusty pieces and simple clean lines. Nothing frou frou. No pillows. No lace. Nothing that doesn't belong. I like to look at really cluttered spaces, but I don't want to live in one. I used to think I liked whimsical things, but I don't. I am getting to be ok with that now. This is exactly the look I love. I love sfgirlbybay... reminds me of home.

If I could create art like Sara Fanelli I would. If I could just eat her up and produce this amazing illustration style I would be the happiest of campers. I get frozen if I even try. Thank goodness she is producing, because I love, love, love it. Especially the room at the Tate - that brown wall may have to become my bedroom closet doors. Mmmmm. The blog is Pikaland and is filled with amazing illustrators - eye candy!

Lastly, I am a huge lover of haiku. I write it a lot. Not very well, but often. I like the crispness of the form and the fluidity of the meaning. I like the structure and give my permission to break the structure. I also love missminimalist.com.

 

 

 

Day 16 & 17: Bubbles

I think I have a bit of a bubble obsession. After my husband and I made the giant bubble wands I can't wait to run outside and make a few bubbles. I love them. They are like magic to me. Or at least pretty moments that don't last. This afternoon I played with them for about 20 minutes - the time it takes to meditate, really. I just kept making them, watching them float and pop. Not really thinking of anything in particular.

It made me realize that it doesn't really matter what the "project" is. What matters is that you spend that time focusing on something. It can be sewing, painting, drawing, washing dishes, blowing bubbles - really doesn't matter. Just something to get yourself out of your head just enough to allow some restful space inside. Nice benefit of doing the 30 Days of 30 Projects project!

Complaining vs. Asking

The Buddha—the Buddha—took a bowl out one time a day each day of his life and begged the scraps of food he would eat. According to the information that has come down to us, he died from eating rotten mushrooms some poor person had put in his bowl. (He blessed and thanked that person before he died for helping him on his journey!)

Cheri Huber reminded me in her blog post about how Buddha died. It came in the form of a letter she shared about someone complaining about the food at a recent retreat. It really made me stop and think. I have written about complaining before. How much time I think is wasted doing it, but the idea that we have gotten so far off track - well, it just blew me away.

We have so much to be thankful for. I know, blah, blah, blah... you are busy, tired, overworked, stretched, not enough money, time, things. I know.

Stop.

What is really going on here?

We want stuff, but we aren't asking. We now live in a society that doesn't allow us to ask for things. Things we need. Things we want. Things that would help us. Instead, what we are conditioned to do is complain about how things just aren't quite right.

I think this needs to stop. Right now.

We need to understand that we don't always get what we want. (Yes, I hear my husband singing the Rolling Stones every time I say that.) But we sure as hell won't get what we want if we don't ask for it.

Next time you are compelled to complain, about anything, look for the larger need. Is it too cold? Turn up the heat. Is the food not salty enough? Shake some salt. Is your relationship not making you happy? Find out why.

The endless complaining is ruining our lives. It is wasting our time. It is boxing us in. It is stopping us from doing good work. It is making our communication weak. It is time for it to stop. Really, I'm not asking you to be the Buddha and bless the uncomfortable things in your life - just ask for what you really want.

Flickr Photo: Rutty

Day 14 & 15: Bubbles and Bean Bags

• KY Jelly
• Wooden Dowels
• Cotton Rope
• Screw Eyes
• Washers
• 10 bags of beans
• Dawn Dish Soap

That was the grocery shopping list for my husband two days ago. I asked if he wanted me to go. I was worried he would be embarrassed buying that many bags of beans... and, yes, the KY Jelly.

He got it all and we made the coolest GIANT BUBBLE wands to use at an event tonight. I love them so much. I am not very good at making the bubbles stay, but I assume with practice I will get great. Oh yeah, then last night at 10PM we sewed bean bags for the same event for kids to practice juggling. Work projects - but OH SO FUN!

Blogs I Love

I thought I would, time to time, share some of the blogs that I am reading so that you too could be inspired by all the wildly creative people out there.

I have made naan before, but I haven't done it in a long time. It is one of my favorite kinds of bread, and if I remember right, it is super easy to do. I found this on Budget Bytes and plan to make it this week which is an all salad week at our house.

I dream of being a hand written letter kind of person, but then I put it off. My luck the people I want to write to (my Aunt Madeline, my Aunt Carol, and others) will die before I get my hand in motion. I also like the idea of sending handwritten notes to people that you just care about - people in your everyday life. Email is so easy breezy, but a handwritten note says you cared just a little bit more. Here is an interesting project called The Hand Written Letter Project full of inspiration.

When I am feeling not so creative I like to see Teesha Moore in my Google Reader feed. She oozes creativity even when she doesn't seem to feel it herself. I have been following her for 20 years and every time I see her work I am inspired! Go read/view Teesha's work.

Day 13: Walking and Talking

All I could picture myself doing was going for a walk. So, that is what I did. I messaged a woman who is relatively new to town to see if she wanted to take a quick walk in town and met her at the gazebo in front of the library. We walked and talked. She isn't the happiest of campers, unsettled is what I would call it.

Made me realize just how lucky I really am. I do work I love. I work from home and even though I complain about it, I am really lucky. I have great clients. I find amazing opportunities to do things, to keep learning new things. My husband makes me happy. My dog is saint like. My daughter is at camp. All things, are good in the world. And at least I walked.

Photo: view of our downtown park where I spend so much of my time facilitating events.

Lying Screws it All Up

What makes grown up people lie? Sure, we all tell the occasional lie to spare someones feelings or we don't say something - which I actually think is more common. Lying by omission. Most people have lied and I am no exception, but I don't like it. The feeling that it give the pit of my stomach hurts more then standing in the face of the truth. So, mostly, I don't lie. Unless it is those lies of omission or telling you that your pie is great when it is just ok.

Why bring all of this up? Because I realise that someone I really liked has lied about something pretty big for a long time. And keeps on lying about it. And she is a grown up and knows better.

So it made me think that I don't understand why people lie. This article goes on an on about being a sociopath - I don't think everyone that lies is bat shit crazy. If I think about the times when I was younger and I lied it was to feel better about something I was doing that I knew was wrong - protecting myself in some way. Did it work, not really, but your head tells you these stories to make it seem justified. So the lying seems like the right thing to do, it isn't - just to be clear.

So, then the question comes up do you confront someone that you know is wrapped up in a lie? If it is my husband, yes. My grown up daughter, it depends - sometimes I don't want to get that engaged in her stuff. Seriously. A friend, depends on the friend. If it was someone that I really admire and plan to be at their daughters weddings, funerals and in it the long haul I would begrudgingly confront them. Someone less then that my urge is to back away... which is probably a self protective thing too. I don't want to get too involved in their stuff. Seriously.

I didn't sleep well last night, though, thinking about why they lied and if they lied about that would they lie about other things. And really who else is lying to me? Goodness, what a rat hole that is. Because, mostly, I take people just as they are. If they say they are decedents of royalty I believe them. If they say they won a pie baking contest in the 3rd grade, I believe them then too. Why wouldn't I - I certainly don't have the time to be suspicious of everyone all the time.

Day 12: Just Sit

After an odd morning that included a tiny work out where I got overheated by the extreme humidity and then a quiet afternoon I chose sitting as my project. Sure, that may not seem like an active thing, a making thing, anything at all, but it is something I go back to over and over.

Since I had finished Fire Monks and, yet again, wanted to leave everything to live in a Zen Monastery (only one in the Suzuki Roshi lineage, please). I realized that Houston, Austin and San Antonio were my closest ones and decided that instead I would just sit where I was.

Never sat? Interested in meditation? Here is a video originally posted by Karen Maezen Miller, author of "hand wash cold."

 

 

Day 11: Hola

Yesterday, after spending most of the hot humid day inside reading Fire Monks my husband and I sat down to do our first Spanish lesson and the first time practicing our recorders together. Yes, I know - these seem like somewhat childish pursuits, but there is something wonderful about learning something totally new to you with your husband or friend.

We both have had a little bit of Spanish along the way, but have never done very well at keeping up with it. If you don't need to use it it can seem pointless - at least in your teens. Now though we are interested in learning to speak it to each other, maybe we will travel when we use it, maybe not. It just seemed like an easy, low cost, thing we could do together. So, last nights lesson included:

Hola.

Hola. Que tal?

Muy bien. E tu?

Stupendo. Gracias.

That was pretty much it and because it was all just conversational I have no idea if I am spelling any of that correctly. The goal isn't so much to read it, but to speak it. It was funny though because the show is a BBC production and the two folks are Scottish, so if we start sounding like Willie the Grounds Keeper speaking Spanish you will all know why!

Then we are learning to play the recorder because neither he or I know how to read music and we thought this would be two-fold: learn to read music and learn how to play a simple instrument. Sure, every little kid in America learns to play the recorder in elementary school, but it was once a really serious instrument. I had no idea, but Mozart and his classical buddies wrote their sonatas and such using the recorder. Not that we are there - in fact, currently we are lucky if we can play Away We Go. Which we finally did after a while of practice where we laughed so hard I had to pee. Next we move onto Merrily We Go Along. At the rate we are going we will be able to entertain our friends at our next birthday with a fantastic recital. Ha!

I would never expect he and I to do all of my projects together, but these were both his idea - and I am happily coming along. We both spend so much time busy doing other things that it is fun to do something together that isn't cleaning, working in the yard, or watching tv.

Days 8, 9 & 10 - Whew

All the best intentions - yes, crap. What have I done? Worked on events, writing a federal grant, met with a new client, finished True Blood Season 3, and read about the Fire Monks of Tassajara. Do any of these count as projects? Not really. They are, but they aren't what I was looking for. I was looking for projects that absorbed my mind and body into something else other than work/home projects. Something that was personal and just for me - and yet for three days I couldn't find the time to do that.

Why? I could blame it on being too busy, but I don't buy it. Sure, I am busy - but I think there is something deeper going on. Something where I don't value my time if I am not actually producing something - something that pays off in some monetary way at some point. This is at the heart of it. That idea that if I am not working, on something, I am not moving forward.

This has to stop.

There is more to life then work. Sure, I LOVE working. I always have. I love creating new things, working with people, learning - I love it. It is my soul food. But when I die are they going to say, "well, she worked a lot." That isn't very fulfilling. That isn't the person I want to be. I am not a machine.

So this week, even though I am just as crazy busy, I am going to carve out those few mintues where I do something just for me. 20 minutes - that isn't a lot of time, but if I can do it I can start to soften and learn the balance of not always having to produce something.

Good thing this is my project and I can value the failures just as much as the successes. Now, what am I going to do today?

Photo: me and Alexa dancing at an event we hosted on Thursday night.