Chapter Four of "The Artist's Way" started off well enough. The title of the chapter is "Recovering a Sense of Integrity". I like to think of myself as a person of honesty & integrity, but there is always room for improvement. I thought it an interesting question though when the discussion turned to ' when you say "it's okay" & you want to say something else - what does that mean? I always dislike it when people say, with tears practically streaming down their cheeks, "I'm just fine". Yeah! Right - sure you are! The discussion is mainly about 'self' and being true to yourself. I like that. I especially liked explanation of the the Sanskrit word "kriya" which, it is said, means spirtual emergency or surrender. This part of the chapter was worth all of the reading thus far. Fascinating stuff - the mind and what it can do! I progressed to "Buried Dreams, an Exercise" and, rather smugly, did the written exercise. So far, so good. Uh oh! The next sub-chapter is entitled "Reading Deprivation". No! No way, no how, is this ever going to happen! Is this a deal breaker? I understood the thought behind this - that when you are not spending time reading you are open to do other things - like knitting, drawing, mending, re-wiring an old lamp - you get the drift. There is no way though that this is happening in my neck of the woods. I have gone to sleep only after reading for all of my many years and this sub chapter is not about to change that. I think I manage to do enough other things to re-connect with myself that I am not going to feel any guilt about not following along with this exercise! I finished the 'tasks' at the end of the lesson and did the weekly 'check-in' and will continue on without an ounce of guilt over skipping the reading ban - maybe if I was, in fact, in a class room setting I might play along a bit nicer with this - but sleep & reading are too enmeshed together in me that I doubt I would be very good at carrying through with that ban on the book!
I have been making pen rolls this week too. Safe places to put beloved writing instruments. The black is the area that the pens are slipped into - it actually has small 2 inch 'bays' to hold the pens. I use the full width of kimono silks and so, generally, there is enough space for 6 pens to snuggle in. The black fabric is lined with wool felt. The black and white patterned silk is the outside fabric and the red dupioni is the lining - I'll take some better photos soon. This one is about to go to a new home and it is one of my favorites so far. I do use some think batting in between the outside fabric and the lining - it helps to stabilize the silks and also adds a bit of padding.
One of things that I had really wanted to do once again when our cat population had dwindled down was to once again feed my small feathered friends. Now that we are down to two well aged felines I have been able to put out feeders once again. My spouse feeds the 'mighty' birds every day - the hawks and the eagles - and I am now able to feed the small birds. They are so happy for the additional fuel at this cold time of year. I can watch them for hours. Each species seems to have a time of day that they prefer for grazing. Right now we have juncos, chickadees, house wrens, nuthatches & rufous sides towhees , among others. The juncos are more comfortable it seems, to feed on the ground and so I put a generous amount of seed on a protected stump and a large flat rock for them. They seem to swarm earlier in the mornings andlater at night than the others. I just ordered a wood pecker feeder. We have a lot of them around here and I think that they will enjoy peanuts.
Chapter Four of "The Artist's Way" started off well enough. The title of the chapter is "Recovering a Sense of Integrity". I like to think of myself as a person of honesty & integrity, but there is always room for improvement. I thought it an interesting question though when the discussion turned to ' when you say "it's okay" & you want to say something else - what does that mean? I always dislike it when people say, with tears practically streaming down their cheeks, "I'm just fine". Yeah! Right - sure you are! The discussion is mainly about 'self' and being true to yourself. I like that. I especially liked explanation of the the Sanskrit word "kriya" which, it is said, means spirtual emergency or surrender. This part of the chapter was worth all of the reading thus far. Fascinating stuff - the mind and what it can do! I progressed to "Buried Dreams, an Exercise" and, rather smugly, did the written exercise. So far, so good. Uh oh! The next sub-chapter is entitled "Reading Deprivation". No! No way, no how, is this ever going to happen! Is this a deal breaker? I understood the thought behind this - that when you are not spending time reading you are open to do other things - like knitting, drawing, mending, re-wiring an old lamp - you get the drift. There is no way though that this is happening in my neck of the woods. I have gone to sleep only after reading for all of my many years and this sub chapter is not about to change that. I think I manage to do enough other things to re-connect with myself that I am not going to feel any guilt about not following along with this exercise! I finished the 'tasks' at the end of the lesson and did the weekly 'check-in' and will continue on without an ounce of guilt over skipping the reading ban - maybe if I was, in fact, in a class room setting I might play along a bit nicer with this - but sleep & reading are too enmeshed together in me that I doubt I would be very good at carrying through with that ban on the book!
I have been making pen rolls this week too. Safe places to put beloved writing instruments. The black is the area that the pens are slipped into - it actually has small 2 inch 'bays' to hold the pens. I use the full width of kimono silks and so, generally, there is enough space for 6 pens to snuggle in. The black fabric is lined with wool felt. The black and white patterned silk is the outside fabric and the red dupioni is the lining - I'll take some better photos soon. This one is about to go to a new home and it is one of my favorites so far. I do use some think batting in between the outside fabric and the lining - it helps to stabilize the silks and also adds a bit of padding.
One of things that I had really wanted to do once again when our cat population had dwindled down was to once again feed my small feathered friends. Now that we are down to two well aged felines I have been able to put out feeders once again. My spouse feeds the 'mighty' birds every day - the hawks and the eagles - and I am now able to feed the small birds. They are so happy for the additional fuel at this cold time of year. I can watch them for hours. Each species seems to have a time of day that they prefer for grazing. Right now we have juncos, chickadees, house wrens, nuthatches & rufous sides towhees , among others. The juncos are more comfortable it seems, to feed on the ground and so I put a generous amount of seed on a protected stump and a large flat rock for them. They seem to swarm earlier in the mornings andlater at night than the others. I just ordered a wood pecker feeder. We have a lot of them around here and I think that they will enjoy peanuts.
