Together ~ PERFECT ~ Theme for February 2020

Pearl knew that…

Evan also knew that…..

Red was the colour for…..

February, but……

Ethan was sure that…..

Charlotta knew that…..

There was no going…….

“It all made perfect sense, and at the same time, 

nothing seemed to make sense at all.”

~ Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

Short Listed

It can’t be just me that…

forgets to write down appointment times

or doesn’t perfectly measure things right.

It can’t be just me that… 

loves plants and puppies and kittens

or feels joy in lovely black soil in the spring

It can’t be just me that…

sheds tears carefully in the dark at a movie

or sobs deeply at the loss of a loved one.

It can’t be just me that….

enjoys using an iron and ironing board

or has sadly missed out on being perfect.

“Have no fear of perfection ~ you’ll never reach it.”

~ Salvador Dali

Desk Drawer Memories

Brass keys that once opened the locks of long forgotten doors. One loose staple that strayed from its little blue box. Polished multicoloured rocks. Bits of paper ~ their purpose? A beautiful green lacquered stamp holder with delicate red flowers. Its purpose? For rolls of stamps not used for many years, it is a treasured gift. File folder labels ~ red, green, blue and yellow. A pastel turquoise tiny stapler laying on its side beside a quite stern looking brown staple remover. And a single pad of sticky notes with a nail clipper and file on top. All of this tossed and jumbled in one desk drawer. As I pulled everything out leaving an empty, dusty side drawer, Harry James Big Band was playing. The vocalist, I think it may have been Bing Crosby, sang the words ‘the album of my memory’. Well, a cluttered desk drawer is not exactly as ordered as an album, yet is still full of memories. Some of the memories, like the keys, are lost in the fog of too many moves. Why do we keep keys?!

With each drawer that I open, I find tiny slivers of memories. It may be a memory of what my intention was, like keeping my file drawers in order. Or it may be a precious gift. Then again, it may be purely utilitarian, like my stapler and staples. Whatever their original purpose or use, they wedge into the tiniest of corners and cracks, much like memories of how to peel apples or knead dough. Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizing consultant, is known to say something like, if it doesn’t bring you joy, dispose of it. I quite agree. Going through this one small drawer, was rather bitter-sweet. A saying of my own is to find the soul within the task. So, clearing and organizing this small bit of clutter, will use these principles. Memories will always stay ~ well almost always. Re-purposing those precious items unhappily relegated to messy clutter, may be a solution. The scary potential of this joy and soul finding belongs to tomorrow’s project.

“Every time I open the drawers it’s a trip down Memory 

Lane, which if you don’t turn off at the right exit, merges 

straight into the Masochistic Nostalgia Highway.”

~ Sloane Crosley, writer

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

Cheerful #2

Tiny acrylic painting
 by Ruth Van Egmond
Victoria Artist

Long and tall

Not me at all!

“A person’s a person,

no matter how small.”

~ Dr Seuss

Cheerful!

Short and sweet ~

Merely a tweet!

“I love those who can smile in trouble….;”

~ Leonardo da Vinci

Gone?

There are safe places for everything ~ 

logical and accessible places.

Cubby holes for the tiniest. 

Drawers for any size.

Files to organize documents  ~ until they get too full

Recipe cards tucked away ~ but not in the recipe drawer

All these safe places are firmly memorized…..

Our unfailing logic chooses these safe places,

in these homes where we reside every single day. 

Homes designed with our own organization in mind. 

Easy peasy. 

Right. 

And still keys vanish

Glasses become ghosts.

Cell phones have risen to ‘the cloud’

 ~ with the sound turned off

Kitchen utensils probably never were.

Where did I put that thing!?

“First up the lost and found has gone missing, It itself is lost, 

So please try not to lose anything until we find it.,”

~ Michael Scott, Irish author