Fleeting Thoughts

Long Weekend Ahead

Last night, someone asked me what I was doing for the long weekend and my quick response was that I was doing nothing.

I’m not actually doing nothing of course.

I never do nothing.

For me, doing nothing is like a curse – it means my brain will be spinning – like a little buffering circle, over and over trying to figure out what I should be doing and it will cough up all kinds of ideas and distractions.

That doesn’t mean that I look for busy work though. I’m not just trying to keep busy.

Instead, I like to plan in a general way what I might like to do over the course of a day.

Even the most leisurely day gets roughly planned out so I don’t lose it to buffering.

I’m not planning a day full of work all the time but I am not doing ‘nothing.’

Watching TV with my husband is doing something, reading is doing something, planning to putter from task to task is doing something.

Lying on the floor looking at the ceiling is still choosing to do something.

I’m not someone who is all caught up in being productive but I am someone with a very light grasp on time. So if I don’t make a plan, I can easily lose a whole day and have no sense of how I spent my time.

The key, really, is to have the plan but be willing to change it if something unexpectedly fun comes along.

So, the literal truth is that I will be doing something this weekend – lots of creative tasks plus lots of short household tasks.

That’s not nothing. 😉

Not quite spring

Last summer I bought myself this delightful disk swing so I could sit in it and listen to music, meditate or read.

Last fall, I decided to leave it out in case I could still use it sometimes over the winter.

And since we had very little snow for the majority of the winter I used it a fair bit.

Then we had a series of bad snowstorms and I took it down to protect it from the weight of the snow.

With the springish weather lately I decided it was time to hang it up again.

It’s not quite time to use it yet but that time is coming soon.

A circular swing hangs from a bare tree, it’s just a few inches above the above snow covered ground
I took this photo this sunny afternoon while standing on my patio. Image description: My circular swing with a green trim hangs from a bare tree in my backyard. The base of the swing is just a few inches above the snow that covers everything in the yard.

Thursday, hmm?

‘This must be Thursday,’ said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. ‘I never could get the hang of Thursdays.’

Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Is it boring to write about the day of the week? Probably.

Am I doing it anyway? Yep.

Well, kinda.

Thursdays are always a bit weird for me. A kind of reckoning about how well my to do list matched my capacity this week and then a reset of priorities for Friday.

Not an exciting thing to talk about and it would definitely be a short post.

A boring and short post.

BUT!

Sometimes you have to let yourself be boring so you can build a habit.

Creative practices, like drawing or writing or blogging get easier the more frequently you do them.

If you stop for a while, you tend to fall into the trap of thinking that you need to create something good or interesting in order to make the practice worthwhile.

The truth is, though, that if you take away the pressure to be good or interesting, you are more likely to be able to create often. When you create often, it is easier (as I mentioned above) and, oddly enough, you are more likely to create something interesting or good.

For an interesting story (stories) about that fact, visit Austin Kleon’s blog.

So, since I want this kind of writing to be easier, and (eventually) interesting, I’m going to just plug away at it, even if I’m boring sometimes.

GIF of a kid lying across an office chair idly spinning around.
Image description: GIF of a kid lying face down across an office chair, spinning idly. The chair is in an open plan kitchen/living room area with a wooden floor. The space looks lived-in and cluttered but in an ordinary living sort of way not a overwhelmingly messy way.

February 23. Hmm!

How do I start posting again after being away for so long?

Just write any old thing and get myself started.

Today, I am writing – working on my a couple of blog posts, a short story, and a section of my novel.

I’m distracted by thoughts of how to organize my plans to prepare for my 4th degree black belt test that I hope to do this year.

I’m drinking a lot of tea.

I want to get back into the habit of writing here and in a few more places. The only way to do that is to start.

Luckily, this blog is about building a brand or attracting customers, it’s just about writing for its own sake.

A cartoon GIF of a pencil writing on a coil-ringed notepad.?
A cartoon GIF of a pencil writing on a coil-ringed notepad.

So, I’ll start here and figure it out as I go.

One of my favourite views

The trunks and leaves ?of four large maple trees very close to one another next to a fence.
Image Description: The trunks and leaves of four large Maple trees very close together next to a fence.

This is me in my hammock.

Image description: Christine, a woman with short brown hair wearing a purple hoodie, can be seen from the shoulders up, lying in a gray and orange hammock. She is wearing sunglasses and smirking.

This is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.