journey to flow

I confess.  I’m behind two days with my weekly 365 post. But I did have a good birthday weekend and the surprise party for my sister was a lot of fun. She joined me this year in the 50 club. But then I thought about the second half and decided that I would start subtracting years. So this year, instead of turning 51, I’m 49! Can’t wait until I get to 21 again

Without further ado…

Here are last week’s 365 photos, beginning with Tuesday.

2-16-10

Toy Soldier

2-17-10

Kitty times Three

2-18-10

View from the desk chair

2-19-10

Yummy Salmon and Halibut Chowder

2-20-10

Boots made for Dancing

2-21-10 (Happy Birthday Sis!)

Presents!

After this week, my plan is to post the past week’s photos on Monday. We’ll see if I can keep up.

Tags: creativity, learning, Photography

So I’ve let six months go by without a single post. How does that happen? Sometimes, life just happens. A demanding career. Time spent traveling to be with family. Taking care of a home on my own. Trying to figure out what our lives are supposed to look like since my husband moved to a different state for a job. Caring for a geriatric dog. Then again six months sans blogging allowed plenty of time for introspection and dabbling at things that interest me – things where flow happens effortlessly. Finding recurring themes: writing, cooking, photography, and motorcycling. Interests that find me browsing blogs and researching and signing up for online courses. Interests that tug at me for the learning and discovery opportunities. Potential passions. Escape from the tedious. Outlets for creative thought and movement. New pathways on my Journey to Flow.

I came across a couple of ideas for photography practice in my web travels – the 365 challenge and 100 frames. The 365 challenge is to take at least one picture every day, read at least one page in your camera manual every day and view professional photos every day – for one year. For 100 frames, the idea is to choose a theme or place and shoot 100 frames. The challenge is to view the ordinary stuff of our everyday lives in a new perspective. And with 100 frames, surely at least one photo pops. All of this sounds much simpler than I believe it will be.

Excellence requires lots of practice. Devoted. Mega. Intense. Practice. My first challenge is to carry my camera everywhere with me. And no cheating by depending on my Blackberry!   I’m not promising that the photography will be captivating – certainly not in the beginning. So follow along on my new journey and critique when the spirit moves you.

Since I was working in the yard anyway, my inaugural day for the 365 challenge was this shot of the fiery blossoms on a vine my husband planted but has never seen the glory of his work.

For day 2, I had the day off today (yeah for company holidays!) and headed to my favorite place for soul soothing to try out the 100 frames idea. These are my favorites from the shoot.

Tags: creativity, flow, passion, Photography

We’re into the first full week of establishing the new morning routine. How’s it going you ask? Let’s see – our gray cat Church (she has that name for a reason) has settled in a little. The first few days she meowed (cried loudly) while wandering the house looking for her daddy. G, if you’re reading this, sorry for the angst that causes you, but she’s better now. Finally accepting that I will feed her and take care of her, she allowed me to pet her this morning. The boy cats figured out very quickly that it takes Merlin a long time to get out the front door and darted out when I wasn’t looking. Seems they wanted to go for a walk with us. As I’m learning to do every day, I just went with the flow and let them enjoy the feel of grass on their paws for a bit. Before leaving for work, I employed the ECRS (emergency cat retrieval system) to get them back inside. Some day they will figure it out and rebel, but for now the sound of a fork on a can of cat food works every time.

The first weekday morning I tried to take both dogs out for a walk. What was I thinking?! Six AM – a jumbled mess – our paper delivery person coming straight at me with headlights glaring – his laughter reverberating until disappearing out of our neighborhood. At least I learned something from the experience – make darn sure there are papers are on the driveways before taking the dogs out.

A comment on my last post reminded me that this is not really about starting a morning routine – I’ve had lots of them through the stages of my life. It’s more about changing routines to match our lives. When my girls were young we had a school routine. When I had to be at work at 6 am with an hour plus commute I had a routine for that. Now that I’m taking care of our household alone for a while I need something different again. Through all of these life changes I’ve found a few things that always work for getting into a morning routine:

• Plan ahead. Make lunches, choose and press clothing, lay out everything that needs to go with you the night before.
• Place these things in your briefcase, tote bag or backpack and place by the door. Besides my work bag where I always put my work crackberry and badge, I leave myself notes with my keys. Like tomorrow. I need to pick up a friend on the way to work. This is outside my usual routine so I’m likely to forget. The note with her address and phone number is stuck to the key rack so I don’t forget. Don’t snicker – just wait until you hit middle age and menopause – you’ll swear you’ve lost your mind every day too.
• Having a place to keep all your work or school stuff helps you know where it is if you put it back there at the end of each day. I don’t have to go searching for my work badge or keys or the papers I brought home the night before because I put them in the bag at the end of the day or when I’m through with them.
• Plan breakfast and prepare for it the night before.
• Get up when your alarm beckons and go do the first thing. Staying in bed just one second longer breaks my routine and starts the negative talk stream. This is just plain dumb – don’t do it. But if you do -  like I did this morning – forgive yourself and move on. Every day is a new start. Just keep starting every day. Ever since I had to get up at 3 dark thirty for a job, I’ve used a simulated sunrise alarm clock. Hands down. The best investment. Ever. Try it – you’ll never go back to a jarring alarm clock again.
• Make sure your gas tank is filled on the way home when it gets to ¼ full. Running late and having to stop for gas puts me right over the edge of stress.

My biggest challenge in this new routine is getting up when the light goes on. And getting to bed on time so I don’t feel the need to keep sleeping. It’s past my bedtime now – so good night and happy dreams.

Tell me how you stay on your routine every morning.

Tags: change, flow, habits, routine