Digging Out From Under

I've figured it out.  The reason why I've been feeling so antsy, so restless, so unsatisfied with things as they currently are.  It's because my creative muse has been neglected.  I have two novels in various stages of completion. Cross stitch projects lying untouched.  Glass waiting to be cut and soldered. And yet I continue to spend time doing all the stuff I don't want to do -- mostly cleaning, organizing, and reorganizing.

The other day after sweeping up detritus from the fir trees, I went looking for the dustpan in the garage. I think I spent close to twenty minutes looking and never did find it, even though I know it's out there.  Somewhere.  And that's when it hit me.  Major changes need to happen.  Back in 2013 I made a new year's resolution to purge my house of crap.  I even blogged about it at Outing My Inner Hoarder for a whole year to keep me accountable.  And it worked.  To a degree.  But in my first entry I wrote, "I'm not going minimalist." Well guess what?  I am now.

I've been reading some minimalist blogs and the idea holds a whole new appeal for me now.  Here's what it boils down to for me:

Don't buy crap you don't need.  Think I've got that one covered.  During my Outing My Inner Hoarder Days I adopted that mindset and have stuck with it.  Pretty much.

Get rid of crap you don't use or like.  And by getting rid of I don't mean putting it in a box to store it.

That's pretty much it.  When I walked the Camino, everything I needed fit into a 28 litre pack on my back.  That was the most freeing experience I've ever had.  I want to feel that way again.  Every day.  So I've registered with one of those online garage sales for my community and plan to start listing some of the bigger stuff.  Maybe an old-fashioned garage sale will follow.  The money will go into the Green Jar.  That's win-win.

It will be a slow process that's for sure.  Time to become ruthless.

But you can call me Ruth, for short.

  

Sweet Surrender

No, I didn't give in and spend the week at the bottom of a bag of cookies or elbow deep in a tub of ice cream.  Not that that wouldn't have been a perfectly lovely way to spend time.  Until the scale reared its ugly head of course.  The sweet surrender I'm talking about here refers to one of my life's greatest passions -- reading.  I know, I just lost a bunch of you.  Reading? Like, seriously?  Like, yeah.  I bet a lot more of you get that than don't.

So big whoop you're probably thinking.  And yeah really, big whoop, I read a book.  But ya wanna know how I typically read?  There's the obligatory get in bed and read a bit before -- or while -- falling asleep.  Not very satisfying when you have to go back and reread what you read while dozing off.  But my main reading comes as reward.  If I clean the bathroom, I can read for 15 minutes or x number of chapters, whichever comes first.  Walk the dog. Read a chapter.  Run errands.  Read until I finish eating lunch.  I dole it out in bite size little chunks.  I'm like Pavlov's dog -- I start salivating when my chore is done.

But this week?  Oh, this week was glorious.  I had in my hot little hands, Finders Keepers, the second of a Stephen King trilogy.  And y'all know how I feel about Steve.  There was no way I was going to fit Steve in between weeding the veggie garden and hanging the laundry on the line.  Nope, no way, no how.  I gave Steve four solid afternoons of doing nothing but reading.  Morning was for dog walking, working out, and whatever else had to be done.  But the afternoons were for me and Steve, guilt free.

And we had a fabulous time together.  Met some new friends, was reacquainted with old ones from Mr. Mercedes.  All of my expectations were met.  Steve's thrillers are every bit as good as his horror novels and definitely better than some.  The only negative?  They end.  I get the book, want to devour it totally, then have to sit back while withdrawal sets in after it's over. Sigh...

My single best reading experience ever?  July 21, 2007.  I was at the store at 8:00 a.m. to pick up my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  I opted not to go to the bookstore at midnight to buy it knowing I wouldn't be able to not read it, and I didn't want the aforementioned fall asleep while reading situation to mar the experience.  On the way home I picked up coffee and donuts from Timmy's and then I literally spent the next 15 hours reading. My mother even made dinner for me and delivered it to my house so I wouldn't have to stop to feed myself.  No, I didn't get it finished in that first day.  It took the next morning as well.  But there was something about the luxury of allowing myself to read it uninterrupted that has stayed with me ever since.

The simple pleasures of life don't get any simpler than that.


Book Review:  The only thing I'll add about Finders Keepers is this -- you definitely have to read Mr. Mercedes first.

   

Thank You, John Lennon

I'm restless.  There are always a million and one things that I could or should be doing.  But when I'm feeling antsy like I have been these past few days, the could be's and the should be's just don't hold any appeal.  So I pick away at things.  And end up doing a whole lot of nothing.  Now there's nothing wrong with doing nothing -- if that's what you decide to set out to do. But deciding to do nothing feels a whole lot better to your psyche than trying to do something and ending up doing nothing.  To those of you who've been there, done that this will make perfect sense.  To those of you scratching your heads wondering just what the hell I'm talking about, I envy you your steady sense of purpose.

I've been thinking a lot lately of all the things I want to do, all the things gradually making their way onto my Bucket List (and silently bemoaning all the money I'm about to spend on shit -- the septic, remember?)  Because let's face it -- if it's on your Bucket List there's a pretty good chance it's going to cost a few bucks.

And then today, as I was busy doing nothing, I got to thinking about one of my favourite sayings -- Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.  This quote is usually attributed to John Lennon as a line from his song Beautiful Boy, but it's been around a whole lot longer than that.  But I like John, so he gets the credit here.  And really, when you stop and think about it, truer words were never spoken.  Most people, if they're lucky and so inclined, get to do something fabulous once, maybe twice a year.  An awesome trip somewhere.  A kick ass concert or sporting event. Whatever floats your boat.  And so for a few weeks every year we are living, I mean really living.  And the rest of the time?  While you wait for the big moment?  That's your life.  And it's not all about the fun stuff.  There's a lot of gotta do's in there with the wanna do's.  It's all about finding your definition of happiness in the stuff of everyday.  Something, I'll admit, I have been neglecting to do of late.

Last year I participated in the 100HappyDays challenge on Facebook along with my friend and good and faithful blog reader, Katrina.  It was pretty simple -- every day we had to post one photo of something that made us happy that day.  Sometimes it was a bit of a stretch finding something in a pretty typical ordinary day.  Or worse, in a crappy day.  I mean one day my happy thing was bacon.  But the point being, by stopping to examine your day from a happy thing mindset, you ended up looking for the good and ignoring the not so good.

So here's what I'm challenging myself to do here on Green Jar Adventures, until the next adventure starts to take shape.  A weekly roundup of life is what happens.  I'll be looking for the stuff that makes my life pretty damn good.

I'll try to make it more interesting than bacon.


Book Reviews:  Our June selection for my book club was Orange Is The New Black by Piper Kerman.  Now I have not seen the Netflix show, but from the comments I've heard about it I expect it can be pretty sexually graphic and physically violent.  And maybe that's why the book disappointed me.  It all seemed a little tame.  Or maybe it's because I come from a law enforcement background and didn't find anything new.  All in all I found it kind of boring.  Sorry.

Until the Night by Canadian writer Giles Blunt is the 6th in his John Cardinal mystery series.  I've read them all.  Enjoyed the first four, wasn't jazzed by the fifth, but he seems back to form in this instalment which was written a couple of years ago.  They are set in the fictional northern Ontario town of Algonquin Bay and winter typically plays a big role.  As long as he keeps writing them, I'll keep reading.

Pines by Blake Crouch is the first of a trilogy.  It is currently being aired as a ten part series called Wayward Pines.  I'm watching and reading at the same time.  When I've finished both, I'll let you know what I think.