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Is there anything more beautiful than these water drops that glitter like Swarovski crystals in the sun? Nature creates this kind of perfection effortlessly, without trying - naturally. So different from us, when we try to create beauty. We have to apply skill and technology. We need to work at it, spending years of practicing and perfecting a skill, before something becomes naturally beautiful without trying too hard.
Here - another blog post - on nature's effortless perfection.
I usually look forward to the weekend, especially going to sleep knowing that my night will not end with the sound of the alarm clock, but that I can wake up slowly, whenever, and linger luxuriously in bed.
But I am in a very creative period of my life and lots of stuff is happening, and most of it happens during the week. So, believe it or not, there have been some weekends when I've been looking forward to resuming doing my stuff, to the grittiness of the week.
Grittiness of weekday life? By that I mean being deeply engrossed in my work instead of coasting, my weekend modus operandi. There is great satisfaction in being intensely involved in something that has meaning to me. Weekend life puts that work on hold, it places me on hold, it makes me pause, it interrupts my creative flow. Sometimes the truly mundane is what's most meaningful; not the special spa manicure, not the special restaurant meal, not the lingering in bed, but the submersion in work you like doing, the feeling of accomplishment and getting something important done. Which mundane tasks do you truly enjoy?
See also an earlier related post Monday, Monday.
Curiosity motivates us to learn, encouragement inspires us to thrive. If I were independently wealthy I would take classes all the time. But - and here's the caveat - it's got to be fun. More so than the all-season gray skies in Belgium, I left Brussels because I was fed up with the dusty post secondary academic system that seeped all the way into creative fields like my design studies. I felt inhibited and put down, instead of motivated and inspired. That's how I landed on the shores of this country where I found a much more open learning environment (I'll leave the financial picture out of the conversation because that's a whole other discussion).
I find that in general college education here encourages inquisitiveness, individualism, creative thinking and doing, critical-analytical thinking, and is practically oriented. Many institutions have beautiful facilities with new buildings, great lab and studio spaces, well designed sports and communal facilities, all of which foster a positive learning environment. I have experienced encouraging, nurturing, personal relationships with professors who work with, not above, the students - a totally different atmosphere than I knew from Europe where I encountered condescending professors on pedestals assured of their superiority.
A Parisian friend said to me a while ago that France's dusty, staid, academic environment discourages exploring and voicing novel theories and inhibits innovation in research. The best learning environments foster an inquisitiveness of seeing the world through children's eyes, full of wonderment and curiosity and of "what if?". I love learning.
Inspiration is what renews my creativity and energy, and refreshes my enthusiasm for life. Inspiration can come from people, things I experience, things I read, things I see, do, taste, hear, even feel - anything that stimulates my senses in a positive way, the more positive, the more inspiring end energizing.
Every once in a while it is necessary to break out of our day-to-day routine and make it a point to experience something new. Routine has its merits - see a previous blog post on that - but all routine and no fun and stimulus makes us bored and boring, and potentially even depressed.
What inspires you? Last spring I wrote about going on an adventure. I get good energy and a kick in the mind from conversations with people - when my voice becomes loud, as my husband points out, it means I am passionate about what I'm talking about. Exhilaration can come from overcoming our comfort zone and succeeding beyond our initial expectations. Sparkling eyes are a sign of good energy, as are big smiles or laughs - that's when a person is inspired and inspiring. Do you have a trick for getting out of a mental slump and boosting your enthusiasm for the zest of life?
Designer-this and designer-that is everywhere. We want our stuff to look good besides being functional. While Walmart sells on price and functionality alone, Ikea and Target have added beauty to the mix with great success - design for less, design for the masses, and that's a great thing.
Designer-everything has entered the main stream. Pretty things make our surroundings more pleasant, color adds joy, and well designed items take it even a notch up from there. Design is aesthetics with intent and it adds sophistication. We love Bauhaus style, many people know the Mies and Barcelona chairs, industrial designer is a sought after job.
From a cultural perspective we enjoy material abundance way beyond the bare necessities and find it no longer sufficient to buy a lamp that lights the room, a coaster that prevents the tablecloth from scorching, or plain disposable paper cups. Our senses have become more finely tuned and the pervasiveness of good design is astonishing. How do you feel about design? Superfluous or adds to the quality of your life?
Walls without pictures are naked. Counters, consoles, and bookcases without tchochtkes are barren. Visual art pulls a place, whether home or office, together and gives it that unique touch. Because I am not a visual artist myself I need other people's art in my life.
Art adds color, art adds interest, art adds meaning, art adds creativity. Art doesn't have to be expensive, and it sure doesn't have to be from someone famous. As a matter of fact I like to know the people whose art I hang up or display, and I like to know their stories - I get more meaning out of that than I would from an expensive piece whose maker I don't know.
I have saved the best of my children's art from their elementary school years and framed it. A friend's young son made a piece of book art which I cherish and display together with some super heavy candle sticks a friend made from farm implements and a tree study we got from a painter friend. And I love my daughter's African inspired gazelle head made from a plastic gallon jug. They are all beautiful pieces that make the room around them look more special, and each piece has a story. This type of art surrounds me with beauty and meaning.
What is it about crunchiness of all food textures that makes it so satisfying? It's easy to eat a whole bag of potato chips (and then wonder how you did it). Crunch is so satisfying under my teeth and hearing the crunch in my ears while I eat is addictive. I want to feel and hear and experience it over and over and over. I don't seem to get tired of the experience.
Food texture and sensation is important, eating all mush is just not interesting. There is chunky (as in roasted root vegetables or stew), there is chewy (as in meat or seitan), there is shredded (as in a raw carrot salad), there is dense (as in cooked eggs or fish or cheese), there is fluffy (as in sponge cake or some breads), there is granular (as in quinoa or rice), there is silky and smooth (as in pudding or silken tofu), there is powdery (as in different kinds of flour or powdered sugar), there is leafy (as in green vegetables), there is crispy (as in a cold fresh apple). But crunchy is best I find.
Crunchy foods involve our sense of hearing in addition to our senses of taste and feeling. Maybe that is the difference - heightened sensation. We live for experiences. Other than perhaps crispiness none of the other textures produce a sound. As a kid I used to love KitKat and Crunch bars and brittle, all because of the crunch factor - now I find them too sweet. I have been tempted to buy a food dehydrator just to make crunchy vegetable chips. Then I can crunch away in a healthy way.
A few weeks ago my husband and I started taking beginner lessons in Argentine tango - the place is only ten minutes from our house and the lessons happen to be free - major incentives - although we have dabbled in ballroom dancing since before we had kids (always on and off, always at the glorified beginner level).
But tango seems different, less mechanical and structured than conventional ballroom dancing, and more intuitive and sensual. For one there is that sliding, slithering tango walk - the most basic tangoing might actually simply entail slide-walking to tango music. Tango requires dropping from the head into the heart, and isn't that the topic of our times? Tango teaches trust because the follower always moves backwards. As a matter of fact some of the practice exercises were done with closed eyes. More so than conventional ballroom dancing (at least it seems so from my beginner perspective), tango becomes a complete merging of self, music, and partner, an in-the-moment moving, feeling, trusting, responding to your partner - no anticipation, just being in the now.
Tango, and ballroom dancing in general, is good for your health. It helps your balance and coordination, moving to music is joyful, tango, in particular, is also very sensual, it requires and trains trust, it's great exercise that's a lot more fun than running on a treadmill, you can do it 'til the day you die, and as a social activity connects you with people. As an exercise in togetherness, partnership, and trusting it's a perfect hobby for our times.
We need to play more, we need to dance more, we need to enjoy life more.
On Sunday, first day of the new year, we had fun marveling at all the firsts we experienced - first cup of tea of the new year, first breakfast of the new year, first walk of the new year, and on and on. It was fun and uplifting. My husband mused about how exciting life would be if we looked at everything we do as a "first," with the sense of wonderment and freshness the new year brings.
That's the secret of living in the moment! There is always a new day, a new month, a new afternoon, to keep playing this game endlessly. Try it.
Our current perception of time, cut up into segments that start over after each cycle, let's us take stock and reboot to begin fresh. 2016 is winding down with the passing of two big stars, Carrie Fisher and George Michael. Neither of them was very old. But a wise soul said to me once not to judge a life by its length but by its meaning.
Here, then, are two messages to take away as this year wanes. Take stock and look back. What significance did this year have for you? What did you learn? What did you accomplish? What influence have you had on those around you? Did you give? Did you take? Have you gained depth? Compassion? What were the big moments this year for you personally? How do they fit into the bigger scheme of the you-theme? My biggest accomplishment this year was the completion of my book - finally. It will be out this winter.
The message that goes hand in hand with the first one is to live big, to live life to its fullest - my mother-in-law called it taking a big bite out of life. You can't go back and fix things in the past. But you can shift your mindset right now and make the next moment, and the next day or month or year, significant. Take a big bite out of life today, and this coming year. Make it meaningful, for yourself and others, through your actions.