Latest Posts

Day 4 of 30 I’m slowly figuring things out

Published by

I almost didn’t do any New thing today.  I almost just let the challenge slide by.  I know that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I missed a day, but I feel like if I miss one day, I will miss another and another.  Give entropy an inch and it will take a mile.

I know from experience how quickly I can lose steam on something.  Considering how lazy I can be, this is not an easy thing I have given myself to do.  Some of the items are easy on an individual level but taken as a whole this project has truly become a challenge.  It is only going to get harder as I whittle down my list of easy one day projects.

Today’s ‘new thing’ for instance entailed purchasing something on Groupon.  I know that seems kind of extremely simple – buy something on a website – is hardly groundbreaking.  But I have wanted to try Groupon out for a while, so it does count as new.  Maybe not terribly noteworthy, but this challenge is not really about being noteworthy.  It’s about doing all those things that I have thought about doing but never got around to.  It’s about putting a little bit of color into my day by trying something.  It’s about being present for life, if even for just a few moments in a day.  I have spent way too much time walking around in daydream, thinking about what could have been, or what might be.  I have let so many days pass me by without making or learning or trying.  It is so easy to get wrapped up in the perfunctory nonsense of modern living – laundry and dishes and tv and Facebook and staring off into space wondering where the day went.  I feel like I have done more in this last month than I have done in previous 6 months combined.  All it takes is a darned sock here, and a craft project there. 

It is exhausting though.

Day 3 of 30

Published by

Already I find myself with nothing to say.  I know I think about things, at least I think I think about things.  Perhaps I should keep a note pad on me so I can write them down as the day goes by, because I get to the evening and I think I must have spent the whole day with an echo in my skull. 

I watched CSI today while I worked with polymer clay and did laundry. CSI is a good show to have on in the background.  Interesting enough to be entertaining, but doesn’t require so much attention that I have to look at the screen the whole time.  It also helps that I have watched the show before. I have, at times, thought it would be cool to work in a forensics lab.  I imagine it would not be very much like the show.  I wouldn’t mind going back to school and exploring a science degree of some kind.  I find biology to be exceedingly interesting.  I remember in Junior High we were given drops of pond water to look at through a microscope.  I can still recall my amazement at seeing those tiny little creatures.  I then remember my teacher being mad at me for asking about the creatures rather than making drawings of them like he had instructed.  I was not very good at following instructions.  That got me in trouble quite a bit as a kid. 

Anyway, my dog is groaning at me right now.  I guess she needs to go out.  I will have to cut this short as I take her out so she can take care of her own biology.

Day 2 of 30 – The whys and wherefores

Published by

I guess I should write a little bit about why I have set myself such a large challenge. 

The challenge being to do 1001 new things in 1001 days. 

This is something I first thought of a year ago.  I had just heard about the book ‘I Dare Me’ by Lu Ann Cahn.  In the book she goes over her year of trying new things.  She challenged herself to do something new every day for a year. 

I love having new experiences.  Some of my happiest moments have been doing something surprising and new.  I went to Cuernavaca several years ago and the two best moments were learning to make tortillas and dancing with the Chinelo Dancers (If you don’t know what Chinelos are, look them up, they are strange and wonderful).  Anyway, I feel most alive when I am experiencing something new, or creating something. 

The problem is that I am also an extreme procrastinator.  I do things in burst with long stretches where I don’t get anything done but thinking.  This is likely due to dysthymia (chronic depression) that makes planning, initiating and completing goal-directed activities difficult.  So this means I will make a large goal and don’t even get it started. 

So while I am only 27 days into this challenge, I am also amazed that I got 27 days in.  And it doesn’t matter that some of my ‘new things’ are incredibly silly or inconsequential.  As long as it is new, it counts.  This takes a load off, while still making it a challenge. 

This does not mean that I won’t be doing some more substantial things; I am going to Italy later this year and California, and possibly North Carolina as well.  All those places will offer many opportunities for grand new adventures.  But I also know that we live in uncertain times in addition to my mood being unpredictable.  So there will be a lot of really simple seemingly mundane new things.

And even if these new things are mundane, the very fact that they are new make them special.  Like today’s ‘Mix’ app.  The app was hyped up like some new way to explore the internet, but really its just a curated mix of animal videos, swimsuit models, and travel pics.  Not really Earth shattering.  But I suppose I would not have known that had I not tried it. 

So why am I doing this?  I don’t really have something specific in mind that I want out of this.  I just had an idea and I am seeing how far I can follow it.  Maybe I will have some grand revelation along the way, or even a couple little epiphanies.  We’ll see.

Day 1 of 30 daily blog challenge – My harrowing adventure on Sunday and some other tids and bits

Published by

The challenge is to write for 20 minutes every single day for 30 days.  This may seem simple enough, but for whatever reason I have found keeping up with such a task to be rather difficult.  I hope that making it a part of this larger challenge that I am doing will encourage me to follow through on this challenge.

The larger challenge is about doing something new every single day.  This can be something large like going on a trip somewhere I have never been before (I plan to go to Italy this year, for instance) or as small as brushing my dog’s teeth.  I have made a record of all my things so far except for one that happened this last Sunday January 23.  I did do something new that day, but it was incredibly unexpected. 

Sunday mornings I have to drive to work rather early in the morning.  I tend to leave around 6:30a.m. to get to work by 7:30a.m. It had snowed Saturday night and when I got on the road Sunday morning it was clear that the snow plows had not been out yet, not even on the highway.  It was dangerous enough getting to the highway, I had trouble stopping a couple of times.  But I thought that once I got on I90 I would be fine.  Unfortunately the roads were truly awful.  At one point I lost control of my car and slid across three lanes of traffic and then back again before I was able to regain control of my car.  I was able to keep myself from spinning out or sliding into the median, and I was very lucky that there was no one on the road beside or in front of me.  It was truly terrifying.  Eventually I steadied the wheel and took my foot off the break to gain control.  Needless to say, I had never had an experience quite like that, nor had I ever had to regain control of my car after so completely losing control.  So this was a first, and I hope to God it will be the last.

Needless to say I was pretty rattled when I got to work.  It took an hour and a half to reach the church, and my adrenaline was pumping the whole time. 

That’s the thing about firsts, sometimes they just happen to you. 

I have been doing a lot of crafty things for my firsts lately, and there will be so many more, but I will also be going to more places as the weather warms up (it is currently 14 degrees Fahrenheit) I want to visit all the museums in my area, and I have several larger and longer term goals that I will need to begin work on as well. 

Today I decided it was time to figure out a way to remember how many days go into each month.  Are there any small things that you never got around to learning with any proficiency? Like calculating a percentage for a tip, or tying a tie?

September 12th – The Moon Festival

Published by

Today is the Moon Festival!

The Moon Festival is a celebration honoring the moon. It is a Chinese festival that goes back two thousand years. It is a celebration of the harvest, but more importantly it is a celebration of family. And there is a special cake involved, so that is pretty cool

This celebration is connected to the tale of Chang’e – known in Chinese Mythology as the moon goddess. The story given as the origin of the Moon Festival is about how Chang’e became the goddess of the moon in the first place.

Long, long ago, a beautiful young woman named Chang’e lived in a palace. It was not just any palace – mind you – it was a heavenly palace. It was the Jade Emperor’s palace to be precise. And in this palace in heaven lived immortals and fairies and other strange and magical beings. And it is to this palace that good people go when they die.

So one day Chang’e was playing in the palace and carelessly broke a rare, and precious porcelain jar that belonged to the Jade Emperor. Enraged by her thoughtlessness, the Emperor banished Chang’e to Earth where she would live as a poor peasant until she could contribute something valuable to humanity. Only then would she be allowed back into heaven.

And so Chang’e left heaven and lived as a member of a poor farming family. One day, when Chang’e was 18 years old, a young archer named Hou Yi saw her and was greatly taken with her. And so Chang’e and Hou Yi became good friends.

Not long after this, a strange thing happened. One morning instead of one sun rising in the sky, there were 10 suns overhead. And as the day went on these suns blazed and scorched the earth. Crops began to wither and die, wells started to dry up and people could not go out for fear of being burned. But Hou Yi, bravely stepped forward to save the earth by shooting down 9 of the suns with his bow and arrow.

Everyone was so grateful to Hou Yi for his heroism that they made him king. And so he married Chang’e and ruled over all the land.

But it was not long before Hou Yi’s pride took over and he became obsessed with immortality. He had all the scientists and magicians work long and hard to create for him an elixir that would prolong his life. When the potion was nearly completed Chang’e came upon it and swallowed it.

Hou Yi became violently enraged and Chang’e ran for her life from her husband’s wrath. Hou Yi chased his wife to the very top of the palace where Chang’e, having no other place to go, jumped out of the window.

But she did not fall. Chang’e floated up and up and up. Hou Yi tried to shoot her down but all of his arrows missed, and eventually Chang’e found herself on the moon.

Meanwhile Hou Yi ascended to the sun where he built his palace. And there they live still, the Sun and the moon, Yin and Yang.

Also, apparently Chang’e was turned into a three legged toad by her mother-in-law. But that is a different story, for a different time.

September 5th – Procrastination

Published by

Procrastination. This is something that I think we all suffer from, especially when dealing with creativity. What is something you are procrastinating on doing? If you are like me there are several different things that are being put off till later. Sometimes procrastination gives us time to think, to analyze the projects ahead, and can therefore be rather useful. But when we continue to push projects down the road, there may be something brewing that is not useful at all. Fear. Fear can be at the root of both procrastination and of perfection. Fear tells us we should not start yet ‘because we aren’t ready’, or ‘because there are more important things to do’, or ‘because it wont be good anyway so why start at all?’ Fear even tells us that it wont be perfect (which it won’t), and therefore is not worth doing at all (which, of course, it is).

There are tricks to pushing past procrastination, you can find them with a simple google search. But ultimately, like anything, creative action requires practice. I don’t mean practicing a skill, though that too is great, I mean practicing doing. Make the doing of it a habit. Draw or write, for 5 minutes a day, if that is all you can manage, and you can go from there.

But for today, maybe think hard about the thing that makes you procrastinate doing the things you love and then make some art around that.

September 3rd Prompt – Skyscrapers!

Published by

Today is Skyscraper day (according to ‘Holiday Insights’, a website I found). It is a good day to take a moment and think about the ingenuity and fortitude that went into creating these gravity defying beasts!

For those in Chicago – did you know that from 1974 to 1998 the Sears Tower (Willis Tower) was the tallest building in the World? It was then kicked off of its pedestal by The Petronus Towers in Malaysia. Since then many buildings have scraped the sky pushing Sears Tower down to 21 on the list. Still pretty respectable though!

But this isn’t Sears Tower day, it’s skyscraper day! Tell a story about an angel and djinn meeting at the peak of the Burj Khalifa. Draw a picture, write a poem, sculpt a model of your very own skyscraper. Or you could research the life a skyscraper in your favorite city. There are so many options!

P.S. The Picture is of The Hancock building

September 2nd – Cherries

Published by

Did you know that today is Nation Cherry Popover day? Neither did I!

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE cherries. In fact, I am going to go out and get myself something cherry flavored right now.

I know it is late in the day for this prompt, but what can you do that is cherry related? Draw a picture, write a poem, take a photo of your cherry popover, write a story about living inside of a cherry pit – the options are truly endless.

If you don’t like the adorable sweet stone fruit, than write about what it’s like to be an outsider in a cherry world.

Have fun!

September Prompts – Gifts

Published by

Today, on the second day of September I would like to introduce this month’s promps.

prompts are a great way to inspire creativity when we are at a loss for something to do. But prompts also challenge us to push past our comfort zones, they force us to think outside the mundane, and introduce us to new ways of being in the world.

This month there are daily prompts, weekly prompts or a monthly prompt to explore in detail.

The monthly prompt is ‘GIFTS’.

The Weekly prompts are ‘Gifts, Pets, Gratitude, and Neighbors’.

All these prompts can be looked at from many different angles. But right now I thought I would talk for a second about ‘Gifts’. When we think of gifts the first thing that likely comes to mind are things given or received without the expectation of payment, usually given at specific times of year or for a particular purpose. Too often, gift giving becomes a culturally expected ritual, performed perfunctorily as a fulfillment of an understood, if not explicitly stated expectation.

But there is so much more to the idea of a gift than merely fulfilling the basics of a cultural contract. If gifts are things received or given without them being earned, than what in your life do you see as a gift? Do you see your talents as gifts? Do you see your experiences as gifts? What parts, if any, of your life do you see as a gift?

I think most people get joy out of giving gifts as we hope the joy is passed on with the gift. This is found in its purest form when a gift is given anonymously, or without any possibility for the recognition that comes with thanks.

How can this idea be translated into other parts of our lives? Or even a life as a whole? For instance, do we think of charitable giving or action as gift, or as just another necessary burden? How often do we give charity with the same joy as a gift given to a loved one? And can we reframe our thinking to see all that we give as a gift?

Can our very lives be lived as gifts, both given and received?

While there is so much more than this to the word ‘gift’, I think this gives a good place to start thinking about this prompt.

Why I haven’t been Posting

Published by

Sometimes things get difficult. I tend to set big goals for myself, goals I know I wont accomplish and then when I fail to meet those goals, I call it a failure and don’t even try.

That is not exactly why I have lost steam on this particular project. Yes, I set goals that were out of reach, but I always intended to go back and start working on them again. But things have been so crazy.

A puppy, for instance, is an adorable monster that turns your world upside down and robs you of all your sleep. Add to that my general affinity towards chaos, and it has been rough going.

I kept thinking to myself, ‘if I can just get this or that done, then I can start working on creative things,’ but of course that never happens. So here I resolve to not let the search for perfection be the death of doing.

I’m sure there is a better way of saying all that, but did I mention the little black monster who has stolen all my sleep? Well, with the sleep went the ability to articulate or concentrate.

I also am dealing with another thing, probably the source of all the issues I am battling. It is an unfortunate constant in my life, and I am tired of it being an excuse not to pursue creativity. I’m talking about Dysthymia. It’s the wrench in the works that makes everything hard.

Of course, my issues are not the point of this group. The pursuit of creativity is though. So tell me, how have you been pursuing creativity, even in small seemingly incidental ways? Or in what ways have you been struggling with the intentionality of creative expression? (Is that not a word? WordPress doesn’t think that’s a word.)

The picture was taken on a trip I took years ago to Cuernavaca.