The Status Report

 

Things are mostly going well here.  Husbandman describes the pain as "stiff, sore, stinging," but mostly "not that bad." He has a follow up appointment in 8 days.  

A big drawback right now for me is the school system's decision to go back to school face to face on Monday.  I was hoping I could get the vaccine before going back into 3rdLand in real life. I wanted to stay with the online teaching because it makes most sense to me right now.  Corona stats are trending downward in our county, so I guess I should resolve to do my best and forget the rest.  But COVID is freaking me out.  I have to be honest about that.

It's time to think about a sankalpa for 2021.  I had two in 2020.  

* I'm open and in motion.

* This body is precious and whole and good.

These sentences got me started most days with reminders to take the next right thought and action and also to be respectful of myself and others.  Not sure yet what I'll come up with, but I'll keep you posted. 

Gratitude #8: The Growth Bodyset

I'm in my head most of the time, so it's nice to focus on my body this month as I fool around with various sankalpa.  Here are some things my body pulled off recently. Warrior poses at Gentle Yoga.  Original dance steps (created by me right on the spot) as I waited for my papers at the xerox machine.  Moonlight walk while talking to #1 Son on the phone.  Hands high in the air as I danced with the Thirdlanders to K'naan's Wavin' Flag.  Four square demonstrations for the newby Thirdlander.  Ten pull ups on the monkey bars.  Okay, that last one is a lie.  But it would be kind of neat if I could do pull ups.  My body refuses the pull ups, but I'm not holding a grudge. I have an attitude of gratitude.  This body is "precious, whole and good."  So is yours and so is everybody's.

Gratitude #4: The Sankalpa Resources

I went in to Thirdland today and pulled out so many materials. Then I strew them hither thither and yon. The room looks like a bomb hit it. I just left strewn materials on every table so that tomorrow morning can be more chaotic than usual.  Good move, Heffernan!

Ordered some books for support with my sankalpa.  Older, Wiser, Fiercer.  Body Kindness.  Body Respect.  Now that they're here, they don't really look all that fascinating, but I'm grateful that people wrote these books and that they're right here in my house so I can look at them from time to time and perhaps become more body positive during 2020.  Speaking of body positivity, if I were you I'd skip Brittany Runs a Marathon on Prime.  So dumb.

Did I tell you I'm doing Dry January?  I'm not sure why I'm doing it.  Not enjoying it that much to tell you the truth.  Still, I'm committed to the whole 31 days of dryness.  You know me. The sky's the limit when my heart is in it. I'm very grateful to all the funny people tweeting about #dryjanuary. Reading the tweets is a good distraction at the end of the day.

Gratitude #2: The Search Continues.

I'm in a little coffee shop.  This place is usually so quiet and calm, but today there are many Chatty Cathies in here.  There are two young men having an earnest discussion at the next table.  First guy shared his great love for his girlfriend. When he gets his tax return this year, they will get married.  He can not imagine life without her.  The other guy shared that he is probably going to break up with his girlfriend soon because she was high when he introduced her to his parents recently.  That really bothered him.

As for me, I've played around with a few sankalpa today.  Haven't yet landed on the one yet.  I want the sankalpa to focus on the physical this year.  I want to remember to appreciate having a body that can move around and get stuff done.  I don't think I've appreciated this body of mine enough. I need to have an attitude of gratitude for this collection of cells that gets me through the day.  Before long, I'll be sitting around in a recliner all day, waiting for someone I barely know to help me into my wheelchair. My sankalpa might be, Thanks, Body or I might snazz it up a bit.

Gratitude #1: Sankalpa Search

Spent some time looking over 2019 with my blog and my notebook.  Some notes about the year:

I made a C25K goal and I did in fact run a 5K with my siblings, but sadly the slogging tapered off soon thereafter.  I made another goal to get something written, and I do have an article, written with pals, out there in SubmissionLand, hoping to be published in 2020. Cross your fingers for us, please.

 I blogged 145 times, up from the past 3 years, but nowhere near my 2005 record of 315 blog entries. Reading over my 2019 entries was a bit ho hum.  I wrote a few amusing entries, but not that many.  I wrote a lot about Thirdland, and I did enjoy reading about some of the projects we worked on in Room 200, but I want to do more creative writing next year.  Maybe I do.  Not sure, actually.

 We saw 61 movies, 31 of them on the big screen.  (Favorites:  Tell Me Who I Am, Give Me Liberty, Honeyland, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Raft, Echo in the Canyon, Yesterday). Definitely want to see more movies in 2020.

My sankalpa of 2019 was kind of a bust.  It had to do with thinking on each day as an adventure.  Really didn't work out since most days I recited my sankalpa in the morning and then followed it up with "Well, I guess."

So it's time for trying out a new Sankalpa for 2020.  I really liked my 2018 Sankalpa which was "I'm a magician lady."  That really brought a smile to my face every day. Do you remember that it came from the title of a painting?  So, I may need to rip something off from the world of the Creatives for 2020. I've a few in mind that I'll noodle around with this month here.  We'll all probably enjoy that quite a bit.

The gratitude challenge is a good idea for the beginning of the year.  Thanks, MM.  I've got a lot of stuff to be grateful for, so why not give those things a shout out here on alittleleeway and start the year with some jubilation?

The Newness

This is a Mose Tolliver painting called Magician Lady.  We saw it at the High Museum.  Mose Tolliver was self taught and usually painted with house paint on old boards.  After a leg injury, he couldn't walk well, so he decided to paint to deal with his pain.  I love his title for one of his paintings:  Jick Jack Suzy Satisfying Her Own Self.

Yesterday I had to watch some videos about having a colonoscopy because I'm having a colonoscopy this week.  The video format for medical preparedness gets on my last nerve.  The computer kept telling me about risks.  Every time it would describe a risk, I had to click on a button so that someone somewhere would have evidence that I've acknowledged that I could lose an eye or be paralyzed in both feet.  I found the whole thing annoying.  It was hard to believe that the computer video gal cares about me and my well being. Think it through, medical community.

Today I read about bullet journals.  I may make my new moleskin calendar into a bullet journal this year.  It's a creative endeavor that also promotes productivity.

Everyone's saying that resolutions are dumb, but I kind of like them.  I am already thinking about my sankalpa for 2018.  It may be something like I do whatever I want.  Or ... I stay true to my whole self.  Or possibly... I am a magician lady.  Any of these sankalpas could do the trick.  I'll play around with them this month.  Happy New Year, Good Friends.

The Scurry

It's back to the scurry my friends.  I want to see the Thirdlanders, but I don't really want to do the lesson plans or the report cards.  I wish we could just hang out together tomorrow and talk about vacation.  Maybe work in our notebooks and read some books quietly.  We could talk a little math, walk down next to the creek, play some mancala, put on some jazz music and lay on the floor, humming along while we imagine the possible and the impossible.

Husbandman is going to help with xeroxing their zines this afternoon.  As usual, he wants me to choose a time for him to come in. I can't believe he really tried to pressure me into nailing down a time. I glared at him and told him, "You know I can't choose a time right now!  I'm obviously in a funk.  Why do you have to ask me these things?"

He ignored my funkiness and answered, "How about I pick up some burritos and meet you at school around 1?  We can have lunch together and then I can xerox?"

Husbandman really cheered me up with this comment.  And now I'm ready to follow my sankalpa goal: "I take small actions to make things better."  I'm heading in people.

The Lion

Last night we saw a fabulous movie called LION.  It's about a kid in India who gets horribly lost and ends up being adopted by Nicole Kidman in Australia.  I found the story of Saroo Brierley fascinating.  Dev Patel does a great job in the lead role.  Well done, all involved!  If you feel like seeing LION, you should.

I'm still working on my sankalpa for 2017.  It could be something like, "I keep my desk clean," or I may use something like, "I take the next right action," or maybe "I fit some fun into every day." I've considered borrowing KC's old one, "I'm a creative risk taker," because working with the editorial team to publish this book is going to require some forceful fortitude.  I don't know why I get so anxious about this book o'mine.  I love it, and I also worry about it constantly.   There's just so much worrying that can happen each day.  That's why the next right action sankalpa might be best.  Worry diminishes when I kick it into gear and try to do some small thing to get my life in shape. But my desk really needs to be cleaned up on a regular basis.  So I'm not sure what I want to do.

The Year

So now we're in 2017.  So far it's going well.  We went on a walk with Nancer and Kev at Lake Monroe.  Nancer found a rock that looked exactly like a big toe sticking out of the ground.  She was delighted because come to find out she has a collection of oddly shaped rocks.  Rocks shaped like fingers, rocks shaped like hot dogs.  Quite a few rocks shaped like hearts.  If you ever find a rock shaped like a heart or a body part, please save it for Nancer.

Yesterday I read a graphic novel called PATIENCE.  Husbandman gave it to me for Xmas.  Quite good.  You should read it if you want.  It's about this guy whose wife dies and then he finds out how to go back in time to try to prevent her murder.

My editor wants me to fix a few things in the introduction and in chapter one.  This might be the day to do it, my friends.  By following Poincare's formula for creativity, all I need to do is:  prepare, incubate, illuminate and execute.  Blogging is part of the incubation stage where I dream and honor the unknowns.  Moving in to illuminate, where maybe some new ideas will appear.

It's January and that's when I think of a new sankalpa.  Not sure what I want to focus on this year.  I'm going to pick something super easy peasy lemon squeezey.  I want to feel fine every day without excessive effort or struggle.

The Sankalpa 7

Come to find out, I'm not doing that great at living a wide awake life this week.  Lots of action is swirling around inside and outside of my head and frankly, I've been slipping up with flubs hither thither and yon.

Yesterday, some scientists showed up at my door while I was working with the Thirdlanders on identifying themes in fiction books.  When I saw their scientific faces, I felt an instant sinking of the spirit.  I was supposed to do about 5 things for these scientists so that they could start teaching some cool science to the Thirdlanders.  I basically neglected to do all the things and also neglected to tell them not to show up.  We worked it out, but after they left, I said to the Thirdlanders, "Wow.  That was so embarrassing.  I feel horrible that they came all the way to our school and I wasn't ready for them.  I really wasted their time."

Of course the Thirdlanders piped right up with encouragement, "It's okay, Dr. H."  and "Everyone makes mistakes."  and "You're not perfect.  Nobody is."   My embarrassment has waned because I really am under the gun with a million things right now, but I need to up my game in the attentiveness department.  Thus my sankalpa proves to be an appropriate life goal once again.

And here's another little Thirdlander story just for the basic fun of it.  We were talking about the International Space Station and writing about whether or not we would like to live there.  I would not because it costs 20 million dollars and also I have a fear of enclosed spaces  After I shared my fascinating opinion, a cheerful Thirdlander added, "I wouldn't want to go on the Space Station because I have a fear of death."

As usual, the Thirdlanders cut right to the meat of the matter.  I'm going back in today.  Eyes wide open.  To Do List in hand. I live a wide awake life.

The Sankalpa 6

The water in Flint, Michigan is toxic.  So many powerful people knew about it, but the state government kept claiming the water was healthy.  The NYT has a good piece about all the incompetence and lying in Flint and Rachel Maddow's been hitting the story pretty hard.

It's going to cost 3.4 billion dollars to fix the water pipes in Flint.  That's money well spent, imho.  Let's get it done.

I don't want to bring everything back to me, but this horrible story makes me wonder if my water is potable.  How do I know?

I don't want to be a skeptical person, but I also know that part of being wide awake is thinking about stuff and not taking things for granted, like my water quality.  Maybe everyone's lying to me all the time.  This is kind of the drawback of this sankalpa.  Being wide awake can be a bit overwhelming and worrisome.

The Sankalpa 5

FYI:  The book I'm reading to help me with my sankalpa (living a wide awake life) is Waking Up to What You Do:  A Zen Practice for Meeting Every Situation with Intelligence and Compassion.  It's by Diane Eshin Rizzetto.  I'm on page 11 and so far, so good.

I'm feeling cheerful about the beautiful snow day I'm experiencing right now.  I've been reading, writing and soon I'll go out for some Indian food with Husbandman.

There's just one little thing stuck in my darned craw this morning and I'll tell you what it is.  Jesse Eisenberg is in our town because he supports Middle Way House.  Nancer saw him at the Y this morning!  She said she almost took a picture for this very blog, but then she thought about respecting his privacy.  Now I'm all for respecting privacy, but I'm pretty sure that Jesse Eisenberg would have been THRILLED to appear on this blog.  So, Nancer, you need to look at it from Jesse's point of view next time.  I'm going out with both eyes wide open to look for Jesse today to give him another chance to be seen on this amazing blog, alittleleeway. He loves our town as much as I do, so I'm fairly confident he'll be eating Indian food for lunch. I'm bringing the camera.

Sankalpa 4

Sometimes I feel the people on The Bachelor aren't living a wide awake life.  People are crying right and left about how they don't get to spend time with The Bachelor.  It's like they totally forget how the show works.  If I were on the show and the Bachelor never chose to talk to me, I'd just figure we probably weren't right for each other.  Then I'd spend most of my time out at the pool reading a book or playing mancala or texting Husbandman, eking out as much vacay as I could from the television experience.

I kept both eyes open on this three day weekend.  We saw Carol, ate out at some fine eateries, and kicked it with #1 Son a bunch of times.  We are always joyful when #1 Son shows up.  He's a fun, caring young man.

The Sankalpa 3

It's grey and cold here in Btown today so we took ourselves off to a little field trip to the History Center. I'm planning a lesson on Btown in 1900 so I took some photos of the limestone quarry model, the Shower Brothers Furniture Factory cabinets, the Railroad routes across our Hoosier state and of course the Gentry Brothers Circus display.  Come to find out the Gentry Brothers Circus featured dogs doing sundry tricks as well as other poor creatures. The winter headquarters for this circus was right here in our town.

Then we had soup at a soup shop.  Now we're at a coffee shop and I'm reading about history, gathering information so to speak. I read about another circus that performed right in Dunn Meadow in 1907.   The reporter of the Bloomington Evening World reported that though there was rain, the circus show was a great time for young and old.  The article ended with a fine reminder about living the wide awake life, which ties in with my new Sankalpa for 2016:

After the procession had passed the greater part of the people went to the 
grounds or to some eating place. The crowd was orderly and up to noon the 
police had not had any trouble. The management reports that there were few 
if any of the usual crooks following the show, but this should not 
encourage carelessness about taking a large wad of bills about in one's 
clothes or leaving the back door unlocked.

The Sankalpa Day 2

I live a wide awake life.

So I'm wondering how on earth I got my computer filled up with stuff for the third time in the past two years.  It's the photos.  KR always helps me straighten things out and for the most part I follow his advice.  But it's so hard to part with my photos.  So I'm venturing into the cloud soon.  I fear the cloud, but I'm going in alert, with both eyes wide open.  KR is going to walk/talk me through the whole procedure.  I'm blogging on Husbandman's computer because mine has 0 amounts of space because I just keep putting more and more things on it and this has caused all sorts of problems. I wonder how much the cloud costs.

#TwinTuesday

#TwinTuesday brings us a pleasantly unexpected pairing of cinnamon sticks and a decorative star.  If you want to see the twin to this photo, head over to KC's blog and see what she's drummed up.  A good teaching pal at work this week asked me why the artifacts in the photos are considered to be twins.  She didn't know that the twin part happens when you click on the links that lead you to WordSAVVY.  I love that people out in the world are checking out #TwinTuesday and mulling it all over.  As artists, we really couldn't ask for anything better than that.

I know I'm behind on the yearly Sankalpa challenge.  It's taken me a couple of weeks to figure out my sankalpa.  It is this:  I live a wide awake life.

Good one, right?

The Newness

For the last four years, I've started the year with a sankalpa kind of goal.  EX:  I'm healthy.  I'm creative.  I'm writing.  I integrate these statements into my morning chats with the universe while I'm blow drying my hair.  I'm struggling to come up with a good one for 2016.  I have a big bag of mixed up ideas about things I want to do and be. Do not by any means consider these lists complete.  My mind's just a rumbling tumble weed of ideas right now.

Specific action goals:  Read more.  Do some yoga.  Get my ankle healed up as good as new.  Have fun every day.  See more movies.  Publish more cool books with the Thirdlanders.  Take some trips.  Sit on the zafu. Make some changes in the house decor.  Learn a song on the ukulele.  Join some type of social justice group or project? Knock off my addiction to screens except for this blog which is going to get a lot of love and care in 2016 because it deserves it. Take photos of hawks and frogs in the wild.

Specific Attitudinal goals: Be good enough.  Stay in the present moment.  Approach each day with curiosity. Appreciate the ordinary.  Commit to taking the next right thought, the next right action.  Treat myself and others with loving kindness.

I really can't decide what to pick.  I'm going to mull for awhile.  For now, it's time to head on in to the school site and conquer the formidable report cards.  They really can drive me crazy, so I'll just try to make peace with the report cards and appreciate the mysterious nature of our assessment system.

Happy New Year Good Friends.  I'm feeling excited about all the newness.

Sankalpa Day 24

Napkin, Plate, Fork.  Tr:  Cake was excellent!

Landwoman brought us cake this afternoon.  This cake was something to behold. I decided to draw the empty plate next to me.  

Sankalpa challenge is coming to a close. I wish I had done more decluttering of computer files during these 24 days, but I'll keep working on that.  

Julia Cameron believes we should write affirmations and acknowledge that we already have the help we need. She has a model affirmation in her book which I will now borrow and personalize:

I'm creative and confident every day of my life.  Each day I'm shown which steps to take.  I'm supported fully and happily in my productive work.  I know exactly how to begin each day and what to do to begin correctly.  Through small exploratory actions, I decide the next right thoughts and actions to take to move my important work along to completion. 

I love the affirmative nature of the Sankalpa.  Basically, with sankalpa, you're thinking, It's in the bag!  I've got this. A nice way to start a new year.

Sankalpa Day 23

Note the look of determination on his face.

As you all know, it's time for the Thursday Creativity Share.

I was inspired by Ira Glass's words to stay the course when you're starting out. When you know your ideas aren't that great, keep working.  Don't give up. It takes time to get a handle on what you're doing.  Like with my goal to be a great artist some day.  I know this sketch isn't that great, but I'm going to keep plugging along. I'm going to pay attention to smarties who have been on the creative journey for awhile now.

Like Michael Nobbs over on the awesome Sustainably Creative blog.

Also, writer Paul Kilduff who shares his cartoons on Facebook.  You should like his page.  It always makes me laugh.  (Full disclosure:  He's one of our bff's.)  (Why would that matter anyway?) (Just look at his cartoons). (Give me a break with this disclosure business).

And artist Marja Inez who has a great tumblr that I follow and adore.

Lastly, good news, my college roommate, Maira Kalman, has a new book out!  It's about Thomas Jefferson. Can not tell you how happy I am about this.  Kudos, Maira!

Thursday Creativity Share is a wrap. The day begins. I'm moving into my important work, with confident creativity and creative confidence.

Sankalpa Day 22

My New Favorite Thing

Before I work each day, I get a fearful feeling and I'm not crazy about that.  But Julia Cameron wrote on her creativity blog that it's not the beginning that's scary.  It's the unknown, the fear of not knowing what's going to happen during the work session. She says it's important to "surrender to the mystery of the creative journey."  So that's what I did today and it worked out pretty well.