“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.”
| — | Brian Cox |
I'd been struggling with what to call my OLW for 2013. I wanted to focus on living with INTENT, and so I thought of using the word intention, but that word seemed too broad. I started thinking about what I hope to achieve from this - it is awareness and being more present in all aspects of my life. In the end I chose the word CONSCIOUS, because in the end I want to be intentional as a result.
Conscious seems to marry the two ideas nicely: Aware, intentional - the word 'Conscious' can be either one of these ideas, and can also represent both.
If I don't work toward things I want, I will never get them. If I am not even taking time to clearly define what I want, I can't even get started!
One of the exercises I did recently, in thinking about my theme of being CONSCIOUS, was to think about what I wanted to do - who I want to BE. The following list reflects who I want to be:
- Live with grace
- Reflect
- Minimize waste in all forms
- Travel, a lot
- Always do new things
- Live lightly
- Be kind
- Give something to the bigger world
- Do the work (do it wrong, to start with, on purpose if you have to!)
- Persist (it will be hard, that's OK)
- Be thoughtful
- Eat well, and right
- Have a plan
- Be strong and healthy
- Keep a sense of wonder (look with fresh eyes)
- Don't judge, or be smug - ever.
- Bring only positive energy, ESPECIALLY to negative energy
And interspersed with those thoughts, as I captured them, some more specific behaviors that interest me, which might reflect those values:
- Bike to work
- Speak more than one language
- Grow and preserve food
- Play guitar
- Do yoga
- Meditate
- Run a 5K (be able to at any time)
- Craft (knit, sew, stitch, make)
- Become an artisan at making something related to food (pickles?)
- Know about nature - trees, plants, stars
So you may have heard of the One Little Word project around the web. It's a concept where you pick a single word to orient yourself to in a given year.
I posted on it previously here. This year I'm following a more structured, prompt-oriented program, Ali Edward's "One Little Word" workshop.
I like the idea of having something that will bring me back to my theme intentionally every month, to check in. I'm working on the first scrapbooking project, and coming up with monthly prompts. I'm excited that this will connect me back to one of my passions, my creativity, in a way that doesn't carry the burden of hoping anybody besides me will like it! :)
In my search for content to reflect on, I found a beautiful poem by Theodore Roethke that speaks to me. I've compared life to a dream before, and it seems to be "my message" to get. Here's another post that references that theme.
The Waking
―
Theodore Roethke
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
The Whole Life Challenge started today - John and I are both participating. We had our first trial workout this morning (we'll do another on November 11th to compare the results). We had our measurements taken, and the competition begins!
I've spent a lot of time in the past week getting ready - selecting items that meet the "food rules" at the grocery store, thinking of recipes and getting our fridge and pantry ready to support the program.
Here are pics of the pantry, frige and counter:
Hello multitudes of worldwide readers (ha!),
In my last post I talked about picking my 2012 theme, "ADVENTURE." Today I will get to have an adventure, so I thought I'd give you a sneak peek. It is a "Hot Glass Day Pack" class at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts. I've always been interested in the courses offered at JAX, but they seemed pretty pricey and a bit indulgent for just another fickle crafting experiment. When Groupons pop up that enable me to take full advantage at half the cost? I'm all over it!
"Fire up your day in the Jax glass studio! Learn how to control hot, dripping glass to create beautiful and funky beads with all the colors of the rainbow. Each participant will learn about different kinds of glass used in hot glass production, especially soft glass and its special requirements, and will produce several beads using soft glass supplied by the center."
I've decided that my 2012 theme word is going to be "adventure". It's trending that way already, in both good and occasionally trying ways.
I've taken 4 plane trips in January, two for fun and two for work. Through some awesome Groupon discounts and my own sense of adventure I've signed up to try belly-dancing, pottery making (in a couple of months), glass bead making (late February), and blacksmithing (this fall).
I have to think a bit and see what other adventures I can get myself into! Suggestions (always) welcome.
See the Northern Lights
Ride in a Hot Air Balloon
Participate in Octoberfest in Munich
See Yo-Yo Ma in concert
Visit Monument Valley in Utah
See the pyramids
Visit Australia or New Zealand
This is just the stuff off the top of my head. In looking at other people's ideas for their bucket list, I realized I've done a bunch of cool stuff already and count myself pretty darn lucky.
What's on your bucket list?
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