Maybe there's too much sometimes

 Maybe there's too much sometimes and I need to slow my roll, and my "role" and just say Less.

Oh, I see what you did there...!

 I was doing so well at improving my typing skills and speed over the summer, but I lapsed into complacency, stopped doing my little practice sessions before work each day, and now I find myself looking down at my hands again. I thought I broke the habit, but apparently not.

Anyway, here are some more art works from the past year that I made: 

Peace and Love, Be Kind to one another.

No wri November

 I think I will just share art I made this whole month ... not necessarily something I make this month, though I will probably do that too; but art I have made in the past. Just a writing break in general (I write a lot of letters, journal entries, and also for work, so it will help me get in the habit of posting regularly without the pressure to put as much time into it as I would normally like to.

Peace and Love. More on Wednesday.

Time to Die, Mr. Bond

 I think everyone knows that line; it lives in your head, and pops up sometimes at the most unusual moments, like when you need to enter a title for your blog and you didn't have one ready. Sometimes going with your instinct, check that, I mean cross that out; not *sometimes* but *most* of the time; going with your instinct , or your first thought, or your inner voice from your *higher* subconscious self, is the best way to go. And without even planning it, I now have a subject for this entry,

Attuning to the process of listening to yourself, which I am learning about lately through all of the online lectures and workshops I have been doing off and on for the past five years, takes practice. And when I began to think of it as connecting with my "highest and best" (the phrase that Sabrina Lynn of Rewilding uses often) Sabrina Lynn Rewilding and that you have a universe of helpers (God, Goddess archetypes, planetary archetypes, and angels (why not?), and also ancestral wisdom, available to connect with, it becomes easier to trust your inner voice. 

It's all connected (Dirk Gently is right!), all the people, nature, planets, and "everything above as it is below," so practicing going deeper into yourself to understand yourself (whether through meditation, embodied astrology, prayer, psychology, or counseling) is a big key to connecting to and trusting your own intuition. Some people can do it naturally, but for most of us, after years of social and psychological conditioning within our family groups and general societal constructs, it takes practice to regain what we have 'forgotten.' It's like relearning something that your DNA already has, but the tricky part is not overthinking it. 

Time to let go, release, and accept your past self's choices and decisions that caused you harm or regret. Time for your "little self" or 'ego self' to die, so your real and authentic self, your true self,  and who you were meant to be, can move toward whatever you are meant to do. So the title makes more sense to me now, if you take Bond as an archetype for the hero, but one who is more superficial, an image of perfection that is impossible to maintain, but who has a deeper reason for being than just foiling an evil plot. There is a lot more to him, and it will come out when the old self is dead/gone. 

I woke up late, so this was just quick-quick, like a dance step, and it came from that (random?) title I typed in, but it is a topic that I think about a lot, and will probably try to write more about, as I, myself, am working on figuring it all out. To quote another of Sabrina Lynn's favorite mantras: "Live More, Love More!" (say three to five times daily, rinse and repeat).

Peace and Love, K

As I wrote the part about Bond dying, I realized there is a film adaptation where that happens, and he essentially gives up spying to do a lot of soul-searching and work on himself for a change. But, the Time to Die line is from a much earlier film, before that ever happened. So, there you go. It was a necessary transformation in order for the charcter/archetype to evolve.

ACTUALLY, I just tried to look it up to check, and the line isn't even: "Time to Die," but "I expect you to die," from Goldfinger, so apologies. The misremembered phrase I wrote is the one I say occasionally, so I am going to leave it as-is!

I said I'd do it, and I'm doing it (So far, so good)

 

This is the new cat I got for my birthday last August. We thought he might never acclimate, but he is becoming progressively closer to us and our other cat, Dr. Crush, the orange ginger who adopted us when we moved here. I posted three art works on my Wordpress, and am writing a short post here, so the momentum will hopefully continue. 

My work from home job is going well still, but I need to learn GIMP photo editing and last night I started watching a tutorial on YouTube that someone shared from their Udemy course they taught. I think it will help a lot, I just need to focus and do it, step-by-step. It's easier to learn things that you are already interested in, so I think it should be okay!

This black cat came from the SpokAnimal shelter, and his name was Pepperjack. They said he started out as just "Pepper" and his sister was "Salt," if I recall correctly, but they had to be split up, so they added Jack to his name. I thought getting a friend for Dr. Crush would be a good idea, and it hasn't quite worked out that way yet. When he first came home with us, he soon escaped out of a window by knocking out the screen. 

Then we caught him with the help of a neighbor's borrowed cat trap cage. Then he got out again through Dr. Crush's in/out window insert cat flap door, so we removed that (and tried to catch him again with the trap), but he ended up running back inside miraculously. He has not escaped since. He likes to play with cat toys, and now eats near Dr. Crush pretty successfully (meaning not as much hissing and swatting as before). Sometimes they seem compatible, and highly tolerant of one another, and other times not so much. 

Pepper (now "Dr. Pepper") definitely attempts to initiate playtime more, and they chase each other down the hall with loud galloping steps at night, but Crush still seems to prefer his alone outside time to settling down with him. It's only been two months, and I think they have come a long way. Dr.Pepper will allow himself to be petted now, but *never* picked up, or held around the middle. 

Crush and Pepper in a few moments of peaceful coexistence, before the inevitable hiss and swat.

It's Wednesday My Dudes

 It's Wednesday My Dudes 

That's the title of the Discord group where people play Star Trek DS9 and watch it together. It's abstract because I don't know what the meaning is, other than announcing it's Wednesday, and since today is Wednesday, the day I decided last night after chatting with the AI about reviving my participation in Blogger and Wordpress sites I started long ago, it's a fitting title.

I haven't reviewed what I posted a couple years ago when I supposedly was going to start writing here again, so I won't be continuing whatever I was saying then, but I just wanted to re-introduce myself to the process of writing and posting; before I procrastinated or de-motivated. I'm going to keep this for writing, and use the Wordpress for my artwork sharing and notes on anything art related. Keep it Simple is always a good motto to remember.

I used to write regularly back and forth with my Uncle Wolfman (Eugene) in Ohio, but sadly he died the year before last. Then I was continuing to exchange art cards, letters, and texts with my dear friend and Moon Circle Sister Turquoize Moon Dancer in Oregon (I think I will write a whole essay about her in the future)... and then she died last summer...and I still write to some friends in California (Barb, one of my former high school teachers, and Rachel an old high school friend), but they don't write back, so it is very unfulfilling to try to maintain a correspondence with them. Barb writes very occasionally, but Rachel not at all; which I find strange because she used to be a prolific letter writer. My friend Adrienne, whom I have known since my Portland days of working at Soho Video, always writes back (with very artistic and creative handmade envelopes and thoughtful musings) but only when she is visiting her mom in Grass Valley, because she lives in Mexico now, and won't share her address with me for whatever reason (though we exchange messenger messages several times a week). 

My point is, I don't have people to write with, so if I'm writing to myself essentially, I may as well write in a blog. That's enough for now. I will make this a goal in writing to post something on Wednesday and Saturday each week. I might write about work, or relationships, spirituality and moon cycles, or cooking and television shows, I don't know. Probably a variety, because that's how life works, and that's the purpose of throwing one's words out into the void; just to get it all out of your head.

I know I can't re-create the magic of the creative card and letters that I exchanged with Turquoize, or Adrienne, but I can share my thoughts openly, and without fear or concern of what anyone thinks, so that will be a reward in itself.

PEACE! Til Saturday, take care of yourself.

Back from a Long Absence

 Inspiration

This past summer I discovered Dana K. White, Nonni from A Slob Comes Clean. She's like an American Marie Kondo of sorts. I saw her video interview on Mel Robbins' YouTube channel. Mel Robbins is a sort of self-help coach and author/speaker and often interviews people with professions in the personal growth field. Dana is friendly and down to earth and speaks about her personal struggles with MESS and CLUTTER in such a kind way that you feel less ashamed of your apparent inability to overcome it.

Anyway, Dana was outlining her methods for clutter clearing in your home and also told the story of how she began her personal quest that became a business. IT ALL started with an anonymous blog! Listening to her describe those early days of writing just for herself  and how she became a writer while focusing seriously on her passion subject of learning how to make her home a livable space was enlightening.

I said originally I was starting this blog to practice typing and writing while job hunting.  I ended up stopping writing mostly because I started working a job that was so absorbent that I had what felt like no time or energy to do anything personal or creative like writing or art making. I still played piano sometimes but that was about it besides being 'creative' in the kitchen. And when we moved from Oregon to Washington in August 2020 I gave away my piano.

The great thing now is that I have a whole room for myself for art. I use it only occasionally. It's pretty much storage for all my art supplies. That's where the clutter clearing author comes in! I have been listening to her audiobooks and they have slowly started to have a really positive effect on my understanding of the psychology and methodology involved in creating space to live in your own space.

While learning that Dana used a blog as personal motivation and jumpstart to clean her house (and keep it clean) is really inspiring, I don't know if I could do the same or not. There were blogs I used to read regularly that really were what made me want to start writing online. I was incredibly inspired by the thoughtful and humorous (and extremely personal) blogs of: Violent Acres, Waiter Rant and The Blogess. They were so enjoyable I was always disappointed if one didn't come out 'on time'. Later I was a regular reader of Retail Hell Underground. The Blogess (Jenny Lawson) has at least four books out now which is super cool and awesome! 

While many bloggers have a book in their future (and that's an awesome goal to have!) I am enjoying the idea (just now as I am writing this) of using this 'new era' of  my blog for making my art space a usable and inviting space to enter and work in. The possible problems with that are: how to take and share before and after photos; it's like a finite project: once it's all clutter cleared and organized it's done (though that could be step one). After that I could carry on and take this to the place I think I always had in the back of my mind, which is an ongoing artist blog where I can talk about and share work in progress.