First I make the coffee. The day begins with the earliest light, and I love being alert to it. My morning coffee is my companion, offering its warmth and taste to a new me. Or at least me on a fresh slate. Over coffee, my mind gets ready to think…
I like the mornings. I can trust them to show up, on time, and serve up the promise of a whole new day. It’s up to me of course, to grab the promise and make it mine. Life doesn’t happen on its own. It passes. But without my pursuit of its promise, nothing gets done.
As too often happens to me…
What’s planned for today? Am I ready for it, organized for it?
I pull out books and papers to work from, which I neatly stack at the edge of my workspace. It’s fast and efficient to put my hands on a resource when that’s the only resource there.
This works fine until my neat stack grows… and grows, and I begin another stack off to the side. And another.
And I lose track of what’s in the stacks.
If I can’t see it, it’s not there!
I’m not even certain what it is I’m trying to accomplish today. There are so many things running through my mind, all revolving around family and painting and writing. I know I wrote down a list of goals last January, and updated the list on my birthday.
And I know I’ve accomplished some things — but what’s next? What’s important to do today? For which goal?
Where’s that list?
Without my goals in front of me, specific and doable, I can get lost in a forest of things-to-do…
So I paint something… or draw.
This day I grabbed my liquid pencils, small brush, and a pad of watercolor paper, and drove a mile up the road into our village. I found a seat on a public concrete bench and lost the next hour to sketching. This is one of the sketches…
Next time I’ll tell you how my blogging instructor at LVSonline, Bean Fairbanks, is helping me… Her blog post explains a little of what I’m doing. I’ll be writing more on my experiences with getting organized enough to follow my own passions.
Meanwhile, if you have suggestions for me, I’ll love to hear them! Over coffee, of course. 
And thank you ahead of time.
Barb
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Barb,
Stacks of paper…hmmm…seems like that has been my Achilles heel lately (like well over 2 years now. I found that after my children left home, and I moved into a much smaller place, I was routinely going through stacks of papers.
Lately, I have been cruel about the paper…if the paper is an important document, it gets filed (which takes it out of the stacks;) if the paper has not been filed or acted on (used) since the last time I went through the stack, it gets tossed. FREEDOM!!!
Paper can keep us imprisoned, and is a dull, dull task. I much prefer your sitting on a bench and creating beauty
Paper prison! That really resonates for me. Dealing with that prison is definitely on my list at 43 things but not something that I have tackled yet.
Bloggers often complain about not having enough time and I hoped that the 43 things experience would help define goals. We shall see where it all goes!
Organize?! That is one of my 4 letter words
I relate to the piles of paper…I have them everywhere! As far as a routine, I hardly have one and I don’t seem to function on a 24 hour day so it makes life rather erratic. I just try to get through the things expected of me and let the rest fall where it may. I’m struggling to have more control over that.
Ah, dear Barb, what you call a sketch, I call a finished drawing. Again and again, I marvel at your talent and skill.
Paper prisons, oh yes Sharon, Anita and Bean, I relate only too well. I have been drowning in paper for several years. Finally, a solution presents itself. My dear husband has volunteered to take care of the filing…unfortunately, first I must organize the mess into piles…and, there is always a good reason not to begin.
Perhaps I should just light a match and walk away?
The other day I actually got through filing my piles of paper!! The following morning I found they had reproduced overnight (with a little help from the postman) and now I’m back to the start again…
PS Off the point and sorrry to mention it yet again – but it’s all in the cause of helping one of my favourite sites. Your coffee cup logo still has part of its handle cut off on my Safari browser. I wonder if you ever got my suggestion that you could try reducing it yet again, subtracting more pixels for the *margins* from the exact width of the sidebar??? I think your logo might also appear in IE then???
Hi Barb – LOL – I’ve just been in the middle of ripping up piles of papers – a huge revolting task.
I just posted a response to your comment on my blog and clicked your comment that then brought me here. I love the efficiency of that.
AhHa! I have company I see. All with papers to process.
Sharon, I like the idea of seeing each piece once — more than that and it’s not needed. That will help me process it in the first place. I hope. I’ve read for years to handle each piece of information once. Cuts the filing time in half, so they say.
Bean, I listed a few things at 43 Things, and am doing okay. Not well, but at least I’m tending to each, if not at the speed I’d like.
Anita, I sometimes wonder if my need to organize comes from my need for no clutter (which is true) or someone else’s idea that I should have pretty files. My problem is, if I put it away, out of sight, it’s gone. I know it’s somewhere… but how did I file it? Wes is the same way… yesterday he hunted for an important file for an hour and finally asked me if I had it? (He was hoping — he used to say what did you do with it? Ha!)
Elaina you hit the nail on its head! There’s always a good reason not to! Love it! If I have some time, I will always pick something else to fill it.
Read and file, I’ve been told. I read and stack…
Oh Valerie — it’s like laundry and dishes, huh? Thanks again for helping me get my coffee cup logo saved properly to appease several browsers. It works now in Firefox, IE, and Safari. Yippee!
Hi Adele — I too like the efficiency of clicking through to other blogs from my own comment section. Gives me a place to start my weekly blog-reading and commenting.
Time for coffee…..
Thanks for stopping by my blog. We can handle anything (even the need for organization) when we attack it with a thankful heart! God bless and I’ll be stopping by again. :=D