Author: Christine

Christine http://www.mombie.com I'm a writer/storyteller/director/creativity & lifestory coach with a black belt in ITF Taekwon-do. I read voraciously and I write like my fingers are on fire. I'm the founder and Co-Chair of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl and I'm the current president of the St. John's Storytelling Festival. I bake a mean chocolate chip cookie.

Yesterday, I was outside

Last fall, we forgot to take off the caps on the posts on our patio and over the course of the winter, they fell off.

Yesterday was such a nice day that I wanted to get outside for a few minutes so I chose to go find the scattered post caps. (I found 6 of 8 so that was a victory. I think the other two are in a small snowbank on one side of the patio.)

While I was outside in the sunshine, I realized that I had enough time to sit in my swing for a few minutes.

So I did.

And I was astounded by how quickly my body relaxed.

I actually didn’t sit, instead I lay down across the saucer swing and just let it swing gently back and forth.

I swear, I felt the tension in my muscles melt.

Just thinking about it today is having the same effect.

I don’t know why that swing is so relaxing but damn it, I’ll take it!

Slow Start

I am moving at a snail’s pace this morning.

I wasn’t well (headache and general weirdness) last night. It threw off my sleep pattern and I woke up feeling like the bones in my skull had been rearranged.

That’s not a fun feeling, just so you know.

So, I am taking my morning pretty slowly.

The problem is, I have things going on later in the week and early next week that need to be organized now.

Someone else *could* do this stuff if I had written it all down before now but, at this point, I am the only one who can do it.

And if I just leave it until tomorrow, it will mean two things:

1) I’ll spend all day trying not to think about that stuff. Deliberately *not* thinking of stuff takes a lot of energy.

2) Tomorrow will feel rushed and frustrating

So that’s not appealing.

I wonder if I can figure out how to still do these things but just slowly and over a bit more time?

Let’s see how it goes.

A sunny day!

Today was supposed to be cloudy and 5 degrees but the sun decided to make an appearance instead.

It’s ridiculous how much better I feel just because it is a bit brighter outside.

Even the winter-dingy mess of my yard can’t detract from the fact that my swing is inviting me to hang out outside for a while.

A saucer swing hangs from a tree in a early spring backyard
Image description: a photo of the corner of my yard on this sunny day. Most of the foregoing is yellowed grass and old leaves with shadows of bare tree branches but at the back, near my wooden fence are two larger trees, one of which has my circular saucer swing with green trip hanging from it.

Monstrous May

Okay, so May isn’t actually monstrous but it is when I do a personal drawing challenge called ‘MAYbe20Monsters’ in which I draw, you guessed it, maybe 20 monsters over the course of the month.

I’ve decided that this year’s monsters are all going to have a question to ask.

First up, Marion is wondering if you can take a little break and catch your breath?

A drawing of a yellow monster with grey splotches all over and purple trim at the top of their head.
Image description: a drawing of a yellow monster with wiggly grey spots and a sort of heart-shaped head that is trimmed in purple. Marion, the monster, has eyes that look kind of like an infinity symbol, and their mouth is open to reveal one triangular tooth. They have just two arms but the bottom of their body spreads out into five shapes almost like tree roots. Grey text on the right side of the image reads “Marion is wondering if you can take a little break and catch your breath? She worries about you!”

On 30 days of blogging

Well, I’m going to call this experiment a success.

I’ve written something in here 30 days in a row.

That’s a clear victory, habit-wise.

Sure, every entry hasn’t been a gem.

And I didn’t always have a lot to say.

But I showed up and I did the thing.

Overall, it got easier to find things to talk about.

In fact, the real challenge was when I had ideas for a post that were too big for my time or my energy level.

And that’s something I want to work on a bit – figuring out how to handle the bigger ideas without wearing myself out.

In fact, that’s something I need to consider in most areas of my work – breaking down bigger tasks and ideas into smaller ones and working on them over time.

I’m going to keep writing daily but I’m going to think of a type of post for each day of the week. – to give myself a container to fill rather than trying to develop container and contents all at once.