Notes To Self
April 20, 2009 by Janice
“Go laser-like toward things we love”~ Me
In the photo under one of my chief editorial assistants, er, CEO’s, you’ll see snippets of my favorite things from the paper yesterday. There’s a note to self, and a Texas Cattle Drive postcard too that I picked up in Grapevine, Texas last week. And there’s a pencil. A nice 9B soft graphite pencil. What do these all have in common? Why would I put them together here?
To play with edges and ideas.
If you missed last Friday’s post, here’s the thing: the house cat that I share some space with here in the Lone Star State batted a full glass of water over the painting I was working on. Yep. The watercolor. But guess what? It dried just fine. Well, a little worse for wear, but essentially whole.
It’s time to approach that piece now with a beginner’s mind.
Edges and ideas can take us to new places, or bring us right back to ourselves. In a good way. Having a beginner’s mind, or approaching something as if we are seeing it for the first time, is the mindset of discovery. And that is truly rich.
Discovery.
And that is where the handy dandy words in the quotation above are driving the next actions. It is no accident, that 9B pencil. It is no accident, only openness, that that particular grouping is in the photo. They are gentle nudges. Reminders to go ahead. That I actually know how to proceed. There’s a thread that runs through them all. A wetlands thread if you know where to look. I instinctively pulled those pages out of the pile this morning. It makes me smile to see what those choices were. Like getting an unexpected present.
So today, another Organizing Monday, will have me hauling out a nice piece of Somerset paper and sharpening that lovely 9B pencil. I need a playground for the painting to play on. Here’s the very big thing. In spite of cats, or catastrophes, I have learned three very important things: 1) Befriend random. 2)Experiment. 3) The constant becomes you.
Upon finding a strange patch in the artistic process, those are three good points to remember. So here I am in a strange patch in the process. Oh sure, I set it up this way. (See point two above. ) It’s still a strange place. It’s a good place to listen… to nudges, and to notes to self. Listen, and go laser-like toward those things you love.
How about you? When you are at a spot that is uncomfortable, even though you know it’s part of a good thing, do you calm yourself and listen? Especially to yourself?
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Does anyone write as many notes to Self as you do?
I think not…
And yrs are legible!
This is a big mistake. Far better to write illegible notes to Self and then quickly lose them.
You are too orderly. THIS is your problem!
Hmph…now where did I put whatever it was…
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