Catching ideas

I took a walk on my lunch break today, in the Baille Ard park that's five minutes by car from work.

My hair was loose and as I walked through the fragrant, chirpy, buggy woods at a relaxed pace, my hair swayed a little with my movements.

As I walked I thought about some different projects I'm working on these days. My body in motion helps me come up with new ideas, come up with the next step. Something that's been feeling stuck, if I contemplate it on a walk, and turn it around in my head like a puzzle, suddenly clicks into place. The next thing to do becomes clear. "Oh, of course!" I think, "That's the solution."

It occurred to me that it's like my hair is catching the ideas. Like all the fronds and leaves and needles, green and lush in the woods around me, my hair is alive, sensitive, catching particles in the air, and turning them into ideas for me.

It may or may not be true, but as ideas go, I like it.

love where you live, but still want to leave sometimes

You can love where you live, and still get super excited to leave. #truth That's me these days. We have a trip planned that starts August 3rd. It's a week and a half in Chicago and Wisconsin. We're going to see Phish play twice. We're going to eat deep-dish pizza. We're going to take a boat ride on the river to see architecture. We're going to hug lots of friends. We're going to get away from our smartphones. We're going to laugh a lot. I'm going to hear Adam tell a lot of stories about high school days with his friends. I'm SO PUMPED, you guys. I cannot WAIT.

Meanwhile, it's summer in Cape Breton. It's my favorite goddamn time of year in my favorite goddamn place in the world. (Remember when I went to ten beaches in one summer?) And life is super great right now! For so many years, summer in Cape Breton meant working all the hours I could. Now, I work 8:30 to 4:30, and have my evenings and weekends free. I have a garden. I have a kitten. I have a man I adore and who adores me. I have a car, and money to put gas in it, so I can get out to my favorite beaches and hikes. I have meaningful work to do. This is pretty much the flipping dream.

But I'm still really excited to get out of dodge! I'm excited to be on planes. To be in a big city that's totally not my usual haunt. To soak up the moment and hardly be online at all, and pack super light and see how that changes the travel experience. I'm excited to fill up my journal with ideas. I'm excited to be beholden only to myself and to Adam. And to see where that takes us.

Anyway, there are still a few weeks til then! Right now the weekend is about to start. It's chock full. Tonight we're going to check out Sydney RibFest (I'm bringing dental floss!). Tomorrow I'm working out at the gym with my rad trainer Steph, then selling tickets for a raffle at work. Then I'm going to treat myself to a movie: Magic Mike XXL. I've heard great things.  And then Sunday I'm checking out the Granville Green concert series in Port Hawkesbury: Sarah Harmer is playing! Woot: it's summer! Let's get outside and enjoy it.

what the clouds are teaching me

 

At the start of 2015 I started something called #leahlovesclouds. It came about because I posted on Instagram on January 2nd that "In 2015 I want to look at the sky more." My friend Amanda commented, "maybe try taking a cloud photo everyday!" So I hashtagged it #leahlovesclouds (keeping up a tradition I got from Elise Blaha Cripe of using "#leahloves" for my hashtags) and gave it a try.

I kept up daily pictures for a while, then as these things often do, it got less practical to do it every day. I'd forget or the sky would be flat grey, or something. But I really liked the practice of looking for clouds, and I've kept taking some pictures, and using the hashtag.

The other day I tapped on the hashtag to see what I'd collected, and took a screenshot. (Above.) Now those 67 posts are up to 74! So I thought I'd share what #leahlovesclouds has taught me so far.

• Just how fast time can fly. I started in January and now it's July, and I seriously don't know where that time went.
• That little daily actions add up! It's just one photo, but doing one photo, and then doing it again the next day, and again the next day, becomes three photos. And so on.
• But doing the little daily actions really is only a good fit (i.e. you're only going to keep doing it) if its something you enjoy and that feels (relatively) easy to do. I'll talk about this in a later post about the weight training I'm doing now, too.
• That a "crazy new idea" quickly becomes "just a cool thing you do". I was talking to someone around the time I got my tattoo, someone who hadn't seen it yet. They asked what the tattoo was of, and I said, "I'll give you a hint, it's something I'm known for," thinking, obviously of Cape Breton and the heart. They said, "Hmmm... clouds?" That was funny to me, considering that my vampire voices are always saying about any new ideas I have, "Don't do that! People will think you're weird!" When you get past the fear by doing the thing anyway, nearly all the time people just take it in stride. Some will connect with it, some will not.
• Clouds are really beautiful and various! Just clicking through the hashtag to see all the pictures together, is really neat.

True story...

... I like walking in the woods.  Even in my fancy-ish office shoes, on my lunch break. Especially with abstract face-painted garbage cans.

    

Most especially with selfies.

So new, so fresh!

So old, so mossy.

Remember when I said last Thursday that I was going to get random for a week? Well, that's what I'm doing. Also known as, doing the work. Right now, at this point in my life, with a full-time job, and a side hustle doing design (and a bunch of my time already sold to people who supported my crowdfunding), there isn't time for me to I'm not making it a priority to craft my posts here in this space.

It's kind of the blogging equivalent of just going for a stroll, as opposed to training and wearing gear specifically for a run.

The secret is that every stroll adds up anyway.

You gotta do the work

   I've been collecting this pile of sticks for as long as we've been in the house -- three years. I've also been staring at this pile of sticks, from my kitchen window, for as long as we've been in the house.  It's brush we've cut from shrubs around the yard, and piled up, always saying, "We'll put it in the truck and drive it to the dump... someday."

Well, the lesson I'm re-learning these days is, someday IS now. Today is the someday from a few years ago. And the "someday" of right now? It's probably a lot closer than I think. A year, two years, they go by so fast.

I had a lazy day today, but in the evening I felt antsy and needed to burn off some steam. I put on my rubber boots, went into the backyard and down to the pile of sticks. I brought the green bin. I cracked and broke the sticks and put them in the green bin, until it was full. Then I kept on breaking and cracking, and made another pile, one that could go in the green bin when it's empty again next Friday.

Lately I'm excited because Elise Cripe's Get To Work Book is in the mail on it's way to me. One of the phrases she's using in her promo is "You gotta do the work." And that's what I thought as I was breaking and cracking all these sticks. The backyard I want, with a pretty little patio and a fire pit and nice plants, well, it's not just going to appear. The brush pile isn't going to pick itself up and walk to the dump.

And, it's therapeutic! Aside from a few scratches from rose bush branches, I feel much better now.

sunshine + a baby

    Today I walked from my house on the outskirts of town, to downtown North Sydney. I met up with my friend June, and we walked from her place to the Canton Restaurant, which her family owns, for Dim Sum with our group of girlfriends. This picture above is June's brand-new 2-month-old baby girl, Emily, along with June's mom. The walk was so lovely. I'd been tempted to drive, so I could have a few more minutes snuggling with miss Mittens, the new kitten, but I'm glad I walked. So much resistance to exercise is in my head; once I get moving, it dissipates.

How was your Saturday?

damn fine writing and dreaming big

My new writing hero is Erin Loechner of Design For Mankind. Her writing is clear like the light in this photo, like the light on the beach last week. I don't skim her essays. I read every well-chosen, jewel-like word.

And damn fine tunes: I'm getting groovy to "Good Kisser" by Usher on repeat, baby.

And just feeling: damn fine these days. A good, clear, lit-up life is totally possible. Today is the "someday" of several years ago, someone said to me the other day, so it's time to stop saying "Someday I will make slowing down a priority". Someday is today.

Other things I've said: "Someday I'll go after my dreams."

"Someday I'll make time to chill with Adam a priority."

"Someday I'll appreciate being in the moment."

"Someday I'll be more honest with my partner about my vulnerable, goofy self."

"Someday I'll take more risks."

Someday is now, yo. Dance to your beat, seek out the silky-fine light and writing that lights you up inside, and do what you gotta do to do the stuff you always said you would do...

Someday.