Creativity

Too Much, Too Many

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I have too much I want to do and too many things on my list.  It’s not a bucket list or a chore list really.  But, dozens of reminders of things I want to try to cook, try to make, try to learn about.  Too many lists of too many things and am unable to figure out where to start most days.  I confess I have completed a few things on the latest compilation of lists.  I have simply marked through some other things to eliminate them rather deal with them.

I have multiple notebooks full of lists.  My hobby seems to be making lists.  I have ideas, I read about things, I get an interest in something and it goes on my lists.  The problem is that some things never get off the list.  Many of the items are not really things to do, but reminders of how to act or think as habitual behaviors.  Some are simply maxims to try to live by.  There are items to buy, books to read, menus to cook, crafts to create, places to visit, people to see, questions to ask. 

I get aggravated with it because I want to get it all done and then again, I don’t want to feel compelled to get it all done.  I have a significant problem with making up my mind.  Deciding a course and sticking to it through to completion. 

Here’s the comical part I am dealing with recently.  I have a tablet full of notes and also a wonderful agenda notebook gifted to me by our son and his bride.  I have a section in the agenda, six plus pages, where I have made a list of things. I am considering getting yet another notebook and trying to sort the list into categorized lists.  It wouldn’t be the first time to try that.  One excuse I have made to myself for being less organized with this aspect of my existence is that I can’t find the right notebook or organizing tool.  And I can’t decide on what to write with.  And I don’t know if I should include all the previous books of lists when I do take on the task.  This is all very ridiculous and very personal. Some people collect stamps or follow college sports.  I collect tidbits of notions and make lists of them.

I have seen the bullet journal concept.  I have avoided it. For a lister like me, that kind of project could either be a deeper, darker obsession or could push me to the brink of exhaustion.  And I always see the journals with all the decorated pages as being frivolous and time consuming.  It may end up on the table after all.  Along with art journaling or a “smash book” I think may be the current term, perhaps I could slow the chasing thoughts and tame the lists.  I know for a fact there are far too many duplicate entries over the scope of all my notebooks.  What if I could make one big beautiful book to hold all my lists? 

I think I may be going over the edge.  I am either going crazy or going creative.  To me both feel the same. 

Enough of this nonsense.  I needed to write Orchids.  I haven’t been consistent the last few weeks.  Now I know why.  Too much nonsense chasing around my brain.  Too many thoughts jumbled up in there. 

Eating the Elephant

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Apparently, I sounded down in last week’s post.  It wasn’t intended that way. I was actually feeling optimistic.  I did make a run to the fabric store and craft store.  Came away with a few things.  I even found some of the items on my list at the local Walmart. 

I have been making progress on the less than pleasant projects.  Little bites consume the elephant. 

A couple of dear friends are eyeball deep in the restoration of a cabin while inhabiting it.  She mentioned having an opportunity to go through her recipe collection that has been in storage and it giving her renewed inspiration and enthusiasm to keep on with the less than pleasant portions of the project.

It models the method I have used for years to get things done.  I will make my list of tasks and then set a timer for twenty or thirty minutes and work on the first one till the timer goes off.  If I am really going great, I will keep on till I stall.  I move on to the next item on the list and do the same thing with the timer.  It is sometimes best to stop exactly with the timer.  If the project is going well and the stopping place won’t cause a problem for proper execution, stop on the high point.  When the project comes back around, it will be easier to pick up and move forward. 

For the less than pleasant tasks, I have interspersed the happier ones to work on as well.  For example, I am trying to sort out a box of his papers and get them filed.  An elephant.  I also picked up a fish bowl and some aquatic plants to make a water garden.  A happy project.  I am moving back and forth on chores and projects to keep from getting bogged down.  I don’t always use a timer.  After so many years of doing so, I can “feel” the time. 

We had a good trip this past weekend to the longhorn sale.  He came home with his pick of the lots.  We got to visit with people we care about and only see once or twice a year usually.  The sale has been going on for twenty-four years and some of us have been there since the first one.  The trip for me was like my friend’s perusal of her recipes.  It has given me renewed enthusiasm to push through the less than pleasant things. 

I have been productive yesterday and today.  I read a book, watched a movie, washed clothes. As mentioned earlier, I have worked on his filing. I have taken pleasure in drinking my own coffee on the porch and watching the hummingbirds battle it out for a few drops of sugar water.  Even the elephant projects have been good. 

Reading back over the above paragraph, I should clarify that reading a book and watching a movie count as productive for me since those items are on my lists of things to achieve for personal satisfaction.  The book was one from the 1960’s by a favorite writer, Rosamunde Pilcher.  The movie was one of Margaret Rutherford’s portrayals of Agatha Christie’s Jane Marple.  As an aspiring writer, soaking in the art and craft of storytelling through books and movies is important.  As for the comment about the coffee, one of the only things I struggle with when traveling is missing my morning coffee on the back porch.  Traveling makes me appreciate it more when I do return home. 

Here’s to a good week of creative expression and loving actions, good books and good coffee.  May we have time to play and time to love.  And time to stop and see the beautiful world He has made.