- Taking breaks = so good, so necessary, so right. Going back to the work, or the app, refreshed = feels 100% amazing. SO much better than "powering through" and doing creative work from a place of exhaustion.
- I love seeing Elise Blaha Cripe get inspired on a new thing. It inspires me, gets me charged up to cut out the things that no longer serve, to welcome in the new things or the things that are old but are now new again. Thank you, Elise.
- The abundance of July in plants in ditches - blue, white, purple, all the plants. Hazy hot days.
- Those blue plastic bags of recyclables went to the curb last night and are being picked up today.
- Swimming yesterday at Groves Point. The water calm, no waves. Liquid cool all over my body, my hands making a path through it.
- "Excuse me, where did you get that suit?" Twice yesterday. "A website," I reply. "Swimsuits For All." Are they saying that instead of saying, "Go you! A chubby woman wearing a bikini!" or is it just simply what they are thinking? Either way, I will take it.
- "Helloooo babe!" from a client, stopping by my office. "Coffee today," he says, and he pulls a loonie out of his pocket to show me. "Don't lose it," I say, because he is notorious for losing his money. I will probably give him a cup of coffee anyway, even if he does lose it before breaktime.
- Next week I am flying away from the ocean, inland to Toronto. I will spend a week there. I will stand in a wedding from a culture different than my own. I will see friends I haven't seen in a while. I'm looking forward to it, but also a little nervous too. The older I get the more I am a creature of habit, of home.
- A Friday at work where there isn't anything pressing, where the boss is off for the day, where I can start to feel caught up on my list = precious.
- A chocolate chip cookie and a cottage cheese so smooth it's basically yogurt.
i am inspired
- I am inspired by Sommersalt's July experiment. (Here.) She is writing a list of 10 observations of the world around her, each day. They are spare and beautiful, striking to the heart of it.
- I don't think I will do it every day. At least not right now. I am not in the headspace for a daily project. But I am in the headspace for simplicity. And for noticing. So we shall see.
- The birch tree I see when I look out the window rustles and tosses like a green pom-pom, gently shaken.
- There are things I am waiting to tell, waiting to make public. I am both anxious and excited to share. In time.
- My partner showers and I can hear the water spilling and running.
- There is a card my mother gave me, sitting on my desk beside me. A photo of two women sewing, wearing cloth around their heads, their faces looking up at the photographer, is on the front. Mom used it to wrap a pair of socks she knitted.
- My office is packed with things, most glaringly four blue bags filled with recyclables, waiting for next Friday.
- I crave tomorrow's freedom to fill my time as I please, and ache to turn my attention to the space I live in.
- We are about to drive over to Sydney and get some ribs at RibFest.
- Love.
it's good to go to the source
In my case, that means my mother's house in Baddeck Bay.
Home of wooden plates, whole-wheat waffles packed with berries and chocolate, and snow-woods-silence. Three cats. Big windows. Memories. Maman.
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Right now, more than anything, I value: silence.
Both auditory and in my schedule.
Time to not think of others. Of their needs. Time and space to focus on me. My needs.
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The clocks went forward one hour. It is lighter later. We crept forward a minute at a time for months and suddenly: jumped!
Happy Monday, friends.