Saturday, June 30, 2007

Half Year Mark

Can you believe it is the last day of June?!? The year is half over, yowza did that ever go fast!
So, I thought for my final day of hosting Saturday Try Day for Create A Connection that I'd suggest we all try to look at our yearly goals or resolutions.

I was going to fudge, but what the heck, I'll be honest here. I had five resolutions that I blogged about in January as part of doing Self Portrait Challenge every week. The goals weren't too specific, but they were doable and important to me. None of them you will note included any art/career goals, those I gave myself a break on since we are still doing this house remodel and my studio will be getting moved again (third time) next month. I knew that putting that pressure on myself would be counterproductive, so I basically took a goal sabbatical in that area of my life.

So here were the five resolutions that I made and how I'm doing on them so far this year.
1) Spend more time with my pets

I've definitely done this. Just ask them. We know each other even better now, just in six months. And we had three pets die in this time period, two chickens and a parakeet. Not bird flu, just their time to go. It was hard, but I didn't have a really deep connection with them, like I do with the cats and dog. This might sound weird, but I have a clearer communication going with them now that I am paying more attention to them. Sometimes I feel like I'm eavesdropping on their conversations with each other and that they are surprised that I know what they're saying.




2)Eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day

I have succeeded at this, especially lately. We are on week four of our Camp Joy CSA organic produce basket, and nothing has gotten tossed onto the compost heap. It is all going in the blender baby, for those super green smoothies I'm eating/drinking every day.


I'm so glad that I'm back in the habit of eating fresh fruits and vegies, it is a habit that I'm planning on keeping! Here's a pic of my pomegranate tree (well it is only a bush size so far), with a blossom and a fruit showing, yay!




3) Stop and smell the roses


Yes, I'm doing that, definitely. Literally and figuratively. Been very "in my head" this year so far, pensive at times, and just thoughtful and curious at other times. Taking time to stop and enjoy is another habit that is worth continuing to cultivate.
Here is my favorite rose in the garden, it has such a lovely scent, and the colours are subtly different on each bloom.




4)Walk more

Nope, not doing this. I'm definitely moving around more, but still not walking much more than before. I have my weeks where my energy level is high enough and pain levels are low enough that I do increase my walking, but they don't last and neither do I. If I push myself too much it rebounds and worsens, so I just don't do it. I think I may have to change this resolution to move more instead of walk more.
Someday I'll have to calculate the percentage grade on our street so that people will understand why I can't just go out my front door and walk around the block. Living on the side of the mountain makes that little neighborhood walk into a hike. Having to drive somewhere to take a walk seems kinda silly to me.
I am walking around in my yard a lot more, mostly accompanied by my camera. It fools me into thinking that I'm just taking pictures (call me easily fooled I guess!). Here is a view through our fig tree.




5)Be Here Now

This was mostly about savoring the time I have with my kids and I'm definitely making some good progress here. I'll be honest and say that this surprised me and turned out to be the hardest goal to fulfill in a real and concrete manner. But I've found that it is a a cumulative thing, this learning to fully be in the present. Part of it was getting out of my own way, what worked for me was to continue with daily meditation practice. Making that space in my head available to experience what I was doing, at the time. Instead of analyzing and evaluating the experience later on, on my internal movie screen.


I'm keeping these same resolutions for the next six months. Except for the Walk More is now Move More. Also, today I'm having a talk with myself about art/career goals, more on that later after the conference in my head adjourns...

How about you? Have you seen 43 Things?


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