I need to find time to write a New Years' post/embrace the year but so far the theme of my year is just 'busy.'
&I am loathe to make resolutions that will just make me 'busier', but I have learnt some space for doing me things, that I enjoy and making those very intentional is a very good thing.
I have always known this but not always done it.
Between two postgraduate level courses, crazy jobs last year (including the insane night/day shift combos) and (still) the high intensity/level of lateral&emotional thinking my job requires (not to mention the part where I have to be happy, bouncy and goofy and keep up with six year olds) I have had little time or organisation to do other things I enjoy.
&I need to change this,or something in me will literally wither and die back.
I don't normally make new years resolutions in the strictest sense, though I hope to change some things in the year always.
In my head I still see November, the start of advent as being a New Year a New Beginning. It is also the start of the Celtic new year, when the old year is at the end of productivity.
(The night is far spent, the day is at hand)
The nights draw in, and at the darkest point,light comes and breaks through and day starts dawning earlier and earlier.
So in my heart I make resolutions (especially spiritual hopes and dreams at the start of the christian church year, advent - looking forward to the Daybreak.)
In a way this post is a month late for me, but I am inspired by others resolutions and hopes of change.
&I need concrete, manageable ways of achieving things.
I need to create. I need to read words, and feed my soul. I need to learn some music well enough that it *flows* from my soul and my mind can be still. (It rarely has been this year.)
So. With that in mind I am joining/jumping on Rachel's bandwagon (without apology, but not without reservation whether I can manage this) two challenges.
First the victorian literature challenge which will feed my English Literature Major (oddly I didn't study victorian literature, unless it fell under modernism or American 19th C. Lit, so it remained a guilty pleasure, but with so much reading a neglected area for me.) Encouraged by the fact this can also be poetry & short story I am aiming for Desperate Remedies - 15 + pieces of literature. This seems a small amount to part of my English Lit brain, 15+ items = less than a term of reading for me in university. Although that was not in depth and was over half of my course. I now have masters level social science reading and full-time work. Still I need time to get lost in another realm, it's the way I'm made. So 15+ pieces of literature in a year doens't seem to daunting and a challenge may be just the thing I need to encourage me to be intentional about it.
The second challenge is a little vague and inspired by this. Craft 50 things in 52 weeks, is too tall an order for me with the evening work and the study hours I need to do. But crafting keeps me sane. It is also an ambition of mine still to earn more money from making wedding invitations, and despite this I have not been crafting/creating regularly. Not even writing --> and that is like a death to me.
I'm a bit unsure how to formulate this challenge, as 50 things probably won't happen. I would like to have 26 completed pieces by the end of 2011, so roughly 1 for every 2 weeks.
object/piece can be any of the following:
- crafts such as knitting, crochet, card making, sewing
- finishing/altering anything/rehashing. So repairing items/revamping them from my growing pile of clothes/textiles to be dealt with.
- creative cooking (presents, new recipes etc.)
- imaginative/creative writing - poetry/story (not regular journal writing)
- music composition
- artistic photography
new wedding invitation designs (my part time, at the moment very part time business) count as crafting. Making old designs do not.
But I aim to spent at least some time once a week taking time to be purely creative, even if that is just chilling out and knitting. Big knitting projects/sewing can be broken down into
smaller tasks, the main thing is that at least once a week I have taken time to create something myself.
This is what I need this year. Reawakening. Creativeness.
&I am loathe to make resolutions that will just make me 'busier', but I have learnt some space for doing me things, that I enjoy and making those very intentional is a very good thing.
I have always known this but not always done it.
Between two postgraduate level courses, crazy jobs last year (including the insane night/day shift combos) and (still) the high intensity/level of lateral&emotional thinking my job requires (not to mention the part where I have to be happy, bouncy and goofy and keep up with six year olds) I have had little time or organisation to do other things I enjoy.
&I need to change this,or something in me will literally wither and die back.
I don't normally make new years resolutions in the strictest sense, though I hope to change some things in the year always.
In my head I still see November, the start of advent as being a New Year a New Beginning. It is also the start of the Celtic new year, when the old year is at the end of productivity.
(The night is far spent, the day is at hand)
The nights draw in, and at the darkest point,light comes and breaks through and day starts dawning earlier and earlier.
So in my heart I make resolutions (especially spiritual hopes and dreams at the start of the christian church year, advent - looking forward to the Daybreak.)
In a way this post is a month late for me, but I am inspired by others resolutions and hopes of change.
&I need concrete, manageable ways of achieving things.
I need to create. I need to read words, and feed my soul. I need to learn some music well enough that it *flows* from my soul and my mind can be still. (It rarely has been this year.)
So. With that in mind I am joining/jumping on Rachel's bandwagon (without apology, but not without reservation whether I can manage this) two challenges.
First the victorian literature challenge which will feed my English Literature Major (oddly I didn't study victorian literature, unless it fell under modernism or American 19th C. Lit, so it remained a guilty pleasure, but with so much reading a neglected area for me.) Encouraged by the fact this can also be poetry & short story I am aiming for Desperate Remedies - 15 + pieces of literature. This seems a small amount to part of my English Lit brain, 15+ items = less than a term of reading for me in university. Although that was not in depth and was over half of my course. I now have masters level social science reading and full-time work. Still I need time to get lost in another realm, it's the way I'm made. So 15+ pieces of literature in a year doens't seem to daunting and a challenge may be just the thing I need to encourage me to be intentional about it.
The second challenge is a little vague and inspired by this. Craft 50 things in 52 weeks, is too tall an order for me with the evening work and the study hours I need to do. But crafting keeps me sane. It is also an ambition of mine still to earn more money from making wedding invitations, and despite this I have not been crafting/creating regularly. Not even writing --> and that is like a death to me.
I'm a bit unsure how to formulate this challenge, as 50 things probably won't happen. I would like to have 26 completed pieces by the end of 2011, so roughly 1 for every 2 weeks.
object/piece can be any of the following:
- crafts such as knitting, crochet, card making, sewing
- finishing/altering anything/rehashing. So repairing items/revamping them from my growing pile of clothes/textiles to be dealt with.
- creative cooking (presents, new recipes etc.)
- imaginative/creative writing - poetry/story (not regular journal writing)
- music composition
- artistic photography
new wedding invitation designs (my part time, at the moment very part time business) count as crafting. Making old designs do not.
But I aim to spent at least some time once a week taking time to be purely creative, even if that is just chilling out and knitting. Big knitting projects/sewing can be broken down into
smaller tasks, the main thing is that at least once a week I have taken time to create something myself.
This is what I need this year. Reawakening. Creativeness.
Wow! You're going to be busy this year! Thanks for joining up for the Victorian Lit challenge - few of us are going for the 15+! But as an English Lit graduate I can sympathise about reading loads!
ReplyDelete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteI was an English major in uni, too, although I haven't had much time for the classics since then. (This challenge is giving me a proper excuse!) You make me wish I were "crafty" as well. My response to reading is the common one: I write my thoughts down. It seems to me that your reading will flow into your crafts as well as into your writing, and that's a step I've never taken.
Good luck with your challenges!