Re-Minding

We all need some form of reminder. The favourite, I think, are the multicoloured sticky notes that reside on refrigerator doors, wave to us from the pages of novels and text books and chide us from our bathroom mirrors. Get bread and milk. Read that selection at book club. Remember the wisdom of that author. Do your exercises this morning. 

At Bubby’s Nosherie on Cook Street, at almost five p.m., I was just finishing up my afternoon writing project. I paused. Not really in shock, but a bit surprised. I’ve not needed a reminder to write this blog for the over eight years I’ve been writing and posting it. It has brought me joy, has asked questions and developed solutions. I’ve plumbed the depths of my ideas and many of my activities. Written badly, in silliness and rare times of ‘not bad!’.

Yesterday, I had moved my ‘reminder’. This slim copper coloured laptop I write on has had pride of place on my dining room table for the last four years. Moved yesterday, onto my desk in my spare room, I created an unconscious interruption to my morning flow! Spanish class, this morning, was just a further interruption. 

How many of us set ourselves specific time frames to get things done, these habits of years of working within or believing in the necessity of schedules. Scheduled reminders full of pressure and ‘must do’ attitudes. Rigid routines, imprinted slowly and quietly on our home lives, do have their value by keeping us able to develop some form of work/life balance. For me this afternoon, it was quite a pleasure to find that, although surprised, I did not set about beating up on myself. The personal pressure was gone. There is much cheer in that kind of calm self-esteem. 

As far as my morning routine goes, it has become time to develop a new one. One that is fluid and flexible. I still want to write and post on this blog before noon each day. Any time from eight a.m. to noon, but only because I want to. The ‘have-to’ attitude is no longer of value. Creative writing does have value for my daily life. 

“The human spirit lives on creativity and dies in conformity and routine.”

~ Vilayat Inayat Khan, 

June 1916 - June 2004