So many things have changed in a week’s time that it’s impossible to know where to start. Of course, some of those things are private. Instead of trying to describe everything, I’ll share the image that Eldest came up with: it’s like working one of those 4×4 (minus one piece) tile puzzles after someone has opened up the frame and taken out the tiles. At that point it’s super easy to solve the puzzle. Well, someone I love broke that frame and gave me the ability to rearrange the tiles any way I want.
I have been living in this house for 16 or 17 years (I lost count), and this weekend I finally started to feel as if I knew where all of my things were supposed to be. Not only that, but it’s gotten much easier to know what things I can finally let go of. (You’re welcome, Goodwill.) This afternoon I rehomed a drafting table that, in spite of its being a drafting table, had not inspired a single person to create a single piece of art in, what, ten years? It’s now in the home of a student artist who already makes art, replacing a broken drafting table she never got around to fixing.
Almost as soon as the drafting table was out of my bedroom, I could see where I would put my chair, where I would move the plastic drawers containing yarn and knitting projects, and how I could once again have space in my room to meditate or do yoga to videos or even just do a few situps. Then I could see where I could hang a couple of things on the wall, so I could see them when I sat there to knit. (They’re not on the wall yet, but the important thing is that I know where they’re going to go.)
Then I was able to see that my second desk in the dining room would not be an Art Desk where I could intimidate myself out of creating Art Objects, but a desk where I could do stamping projects or create scrapbook pages. And I could put my scrapbook supplies closer to the desk if I moved that small bookcase with all the books about Africa to the other wall, between the two tall bookcases. Of course, the artwork on the walls would need to make the move, too….
Last week I finally called the trash company to schedule a bulk pick-up of a small mountain of items that were taking up space in my garage. I have been putting off making this phone call for at least a year. I called on Wednesday morning, got everything to the end of the driveway on Wednesday night, and watched in glee on Thursday morning as a truck pulled up and two men loaded two mattresses, two box springs, parts and hardware of a loft bed, a desk, and a broken office chair into that truck and drove away. I felt so much lighter.
The last two weeks have shocked me into a hard restart of my life, and I am grateful.
In peach-tree news, something is definitely happening here, too!
Let’s see what’s happening by this time next week. I like the looks of this.
Knitwise, I have sorted through a couple of bags that held remnants of prior projects. I found my knitting toolkit and my tape measure, and I put them back in my main knitting tote. I found a darker grey yarn, so I added it to the project bag for the Requested Scarf, moving to storage the lighter grey yarn I’d had in there. In fact, I emptied an entire bag and was able to — get this — fold the bag up and put it away.
So I have everything I need to start the scarf (including a pattern, thanks to Facebook Friend Gail Fraleigh), as well as a couple of nice-looking skeins that seem to want to be turned into simple shawls.
I don’t have any confidence that I’ll be able to meditate every day, but alternating meditation time with knitting time might be a more reasonable goal. And simple knitting can be indistinguishable from meditation.
Chocolate Sheep 