HANG ON

Once in a while in the Pacific Northwest there is a day in December or January after a particularly long stretch of nasty weather that reminds me why I love the place where I was born. 

One morning I wake up and notice the rain has let up for a while and as the dawn breaks a slight breeze comes up to push away the layer of clouds that has been pressing down for days, or even weeks.

As they break up, patches of blue peek out and grow larger so that by noon the sky is so blue, the air so bright and clear, that the snow, dazzling off the mountains, almost hurts my eyes and I want to weep just from the sheer magnificence of it all. 

The wind ruffles my hair and makes me hold my coat closed a little tighter against the chill...and yet... there is a hint of something, maybe not the touch of warmth sometimes felt in March that whispers of warmer days ahead  but a sense or maybe a smell that says "not yet but hang on to the beauty of this day when you get discouraged by the rain and snow and fog and gloom in the weeks ahead.  Hang on to the memories of a memory that spring will come again like it always does...

but for now...AT THE END OF THE DAY... button up because here we go again".  Another winter storm is blowing in from the ocean."

ONE THING AT A TIME...ALMOST

I tend to fly by the seat of my pants and work on what ever comes up each day or whatever grabs my attention from moment to moment.  As you can guess I start a lot of projects but finish very few of them. 

In my pursuit of paying attention this year I have decided to do a little more planning in my daily life and in my artistic life.  I'm hoping by concentrating on one thing at a time I can get more accomplished.  I am going to take before and after pictures and share the process in my blog. 

These are the projects I am concentrating on right now.

These shelves for my family room were supposed to go up right after we finished remodeling (two years ago?).

My family wall in the same room has never been completed so I am getting pictures I have in the computer ready to send off to the printer.  

This is my "unframed photo" shelf.  I ordered about a dozen new photos to mat and frame to show last year but I didn't do any shows so they are still sitting there waiting.  

And last but not least, this is my design wall for the "People in My Head".  I cut things out while I watch TV then when I have some creative time I mix and match until I have something I'm ready to glue down and finish. 

So be patient with me friends and follow my progress and

...AT THE END OF THE DAY...let's see how long it takes to teach an old dog some new tricks.

 

MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?

I have always had the attention span of a gnat.  When I was in school my report cards would often have notes that said "eager to learn but needs to work slower" which meant I would jump from one thing to another, my mind going a million miles a minute.  Nowadays I would probably be labeled ADD.  Mother just called me a wiggle worm. 

I learned early on how to sit still by going inside my head and  tapping a foot or finger where no one could see so I wouldn't draw attention to myself.  When I learned to read, books became my escape.  My daughter tells me I missed nearly all of the 70's and the 80's with my head buried in a book.  It wasn't until I went to collage, in my forties, and went to work full time that I began to come out of my shell but it wasn't easy and old habits die hard.  

While I was trying to decide what word I would pick to work on this year I began to think about all the things I still don't pay attention to because I am inside my head or jumping from one thing to another or what I ignore and put on the back burner because I get distracted.     

I wondered, what have I missed and what would happen if I paid attention to one thing at a time...if I listened with all my attention when someone talks to me instead of interrupting with a thought or an opinion before I even know what they are saying.

What if I paid attention to details like saying please and thank you instead of taking people for granted and if I apologized when I am wrong but quit apologizing automatically if someone is not happy with who I am or what I believe.

How would my life change if I ask for attention (and help) when needed instead of trying to do everything myself and if I listened with attention to my body when it spoke to me.

What would happen if I  paid attention to 'now', each hour of each day. 

...AT THE END OF THE DAY... what will happen if I choose ATTENTION as my word for 2013?  Stay tuned and find out...I know I'll be paying attention.