How am I doing? #2013 word - "create". #Maylinklove

 “I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake.”
― Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

On holiday I found this list.......

  

here.....it's in the window of this delightful shop...

below a picture of.....

....I've seen this list before somewhere but don't know who the author of it was. Maybe it was Walt Whitman himself? Anyone any idea? Or do you have a list of your own?

.......so I checked how I was doing right there and then, standing outside the bookshop. Breathing a sigh of relief to see number 16 (mental tick)...... I then thought almost at once, "Not doing so well with the others, are you?"

It was the first evening of our holiday in April, and I was keenly aware of how busy I had been with other things, since early February. When I looked again more gently at my activities measured against the list,  I acknowledged that there were one or two items that I do regularly; one or two that I don't do as often as I used to; and also one or two that are often amongst my good intentions but that don't continue for very long. Then there were numbers  10, 11 and 12 which involve other people.....big stumbling block there for me, as some readers will know, I struggle a little with other human beings(and with myself). 

So how am I doing? It's May now and there has been a little more me-time. I do seem to be doing quite well at the moment, and am glad to say that this.....

Click to go to Daisy Yellow Square

...the April link love mission by Tammy is continuing through May; and is really helping me with numbers 10 and 12.  Thanks to one of Tammy's links I have been painting again..... so that's  13,14, 15 and 22 on the list visited in April too.

Anyway, here are my link-love favourites for last Friday(helping me with number 1 on the list)......

1. There are a few different versions of the "Ways to stay creative" list .....including this one here. I think I will enjoy exploring this website. I already love their Creative Manifesto.

2. Concert Pianist, James Rhodes wrote an article for the Guardian Newspaper last week.  'Find what you love and let it kill you' was his title/headline, quoted he says, from Charles Bukowski. I absolutely love his article and what he writes about how music has changed his life and why. Also about the loss of creativity in Western Society and the numbing we sometimes succumb to.....I love this rather long quote.....and his wise words about how we absolutely have to make time for our creactivity.......

 "....the most common thing people say to me when they hear I'm a pianist is "I used to play the piano as a kid. I really regret giving it up". I imagine authors have lost count of the number of people who have told them they "always had a book inside them". We seem to have evolved into a society of mourned and misplaced creativity. A world where people have simply surrendered to (or been beaten into submission by) the sleepwalk of work, domesticity, mortgage repayments, junk food, junk TV, junk everything, angry ex-wives, ADHD kids and the lure of eating chicken from a bucket while emailing clients at 8pm on a weekend......

..........Do the maths. We can function - sometimes quite brilliantly - on six hours' sleep a night. Eight hours of work was more than good enough for centuries (oh the desperate irony that we actually work longer hours since the invention of the internet and smartphones). Four hours will amply cover picking the kids up, cleaning the flat, eating, washing and the various etceteras. We are left with six hours. 360 minutes to do whatever we want. Is what we want simply to numb out and give Simon Cowell even more money? To scroll through Twitter and Facebook looking for romance, bromance, cats, weather reports, obituaries and gossip? To get nostalgically, painfully drunk in a pub where you can't even smoke?"

Here is more of James talking, and playing the piano. Quite brilliant and a nod to number 8 on the list for me.

 

3. I am going to be taking part in Jenn Gibson's Breathe Peace  later on in May. I already recognise that I struggle with self-care and I know that this is just what I need right now to get me back on track. Jenn from Roots Of She was offering the Breathe Peace e-course at a lower price for 24 hours on May 6th which seemed too tempting and generous an offer to pass up. Thank you Jenn.

4. Jenn's course looks like a perfect complement to Take Flight which is May's theme for The Art Journaler Community. I have yet to make a start on journaling on looking at my nest as it is right now, and clearing out that which no longer serves me....however I am there in my head already. At home in these first few days of May, I have reorganised some of my art materials for easier access, especially now that our household is going to be expanding. I have been participating in Mindful in May and am becoming more mindful of my body and her needs. I am really looking forward to art journaling and setting my intentions for the future in these areas. 

Create, create, create. On discovering myself on the verge of a usual mistake, I can choose to take another route. If I watch myself kindly, I always have that choice.