Tag Archives: Author

Want To Play Catch ——-Up?

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I never have been good at playing catch. I also am not very good at playing catch -up. I took a week away to spend time with friends and family. I also took the time for some much needed rest. I had planned on doing some writing when I had time alone for a few days, but I found  I was tired and needed the time alone to play catch-up on my energy.

I am home again and trying to get back into the swing of things, but there are many tasks that need to be taken care of. My time away renewed my energy to tackle those tough tasks. I want to share my experiences with you.

First on my list was a speaking engagement at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lakeville. I was greeted by some lovely and friendly women. They made me and my daughter-in-law feel at home. Immediately my jitters were put to rest. They laughed at the right places, and I left them crying when I read, Show And Tell, from my new book, “Something About Nothing”. I am not sure that was my goal to leave someone crying, but I like to move hearts.

Next on my agenda was time with family. I enjoyed watching dance recitals, basketball practice, where I observed the best first grade coach I had ever encountered, and time in conversation.

And then…..I got to spend time with my grand kitties alone in their new home. I was kitty sitting. I had a beautiful location in a fun shopping town. But….I found the quietness and the peace by myself were more tempting than the shopping. It was my time to get up when I wanted, eat what I wanted, when I wanted. It was my time to read a book, or stare into space or sleep. And I did. It felt great.

Having attended five funerals in two weeks also made me realize time is short and I needed to catch up with some friends I had not seen in a long time. Many years ago a young teenage girl spent a lot of time with us. She captured my heart. We still have a connection and so we met for the first time in two years. Even though our first connection was over 20 years ago, it was as if it were yesterday, and we could share our lives without skipping a beat. It was a meeting between young and old but age didn’t matter.

On my way home I stopped to have lunch with another friend. We share the same birthday. We share hearts. Time and distance doesn’t matter because we are still there for one another.

I caught up with my week away and I have plenty of catching up to do now that I am home, but the lessons I learned on my week away were valuable.

Family keeps my heart beating.

Friends keep my heart smiling.

New connections with new people, lead me on a path to open my heart for risking new friendships.

Rest is a must. Don’t be afraid to alone with yourself. You might actually discover new things about yourself that will give you energy to go forward and know that you can meet the challenges of the future. The important thing to remember is that we all need the time to sit in silence with ourselves.

I dedicate this blog post to family, new friends and old friends that helped me, catch-up with me.

St. Johns Ladies

  St. Johns Ladies

Joan and I at St. Johns

Joan and I at St. Johns

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With my friend Angie

With my friend Angie

My friend Donna

My friend Donna

 

 

Repurpose Your Life!

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Something About Nothing printed in the Albert Lea Tribune the week of April 13yellow chair PURPOSE

I have a case of the “I can do that’s.” My husband always tells me to concentrate on one thing and one thing only. These days he means my writing. I know he is right but my brain always has a case of the “I can do that.”

We now live in a world where it is fashionable to reuse and repurpose old things. It is popular to take pieces of one thing and put it together with pieces of something else to make something new. Having the scattered and creative brain that I do my mind cannot function well on concentrating on just one thing for my creativity. I find myself engrossed in writing a story and all of a sudden I see or hear something and an idea pops into my head. It is stuck there in a vision.

I take my vision to the sensible person in my household and he doesn’t see it. Now there are occasions where I can create my vision myself such as the wall I am working on in my writing room. I am papering it with old book pages. What better inspiration for a writer? But then, there are the projects that I cannot do by myself because I do not have the skills. I can see a bench seat made out of my old radiator cover. I see color and beauty in old dilapidated chairs and dressers. I see wall art made with old computer pieces. My heart beats fast and juices flow at the thought of old made new.

I felt very alone in these ideas until recently when a friend changed the venue of her store and another friend retired from her job. All of a sudden I have other people that get it. The store sells old and unique furniture. It is called Second Chances and it is all of that. The store has been in my community for years but recently the store has changed focus, and it values all that has been and all that the pieces could be.

Because of these new people in my life, the more conservative person is actually seeing my vision from time to time, such as when he helped me haul home an old tin kitchen cabinet that needs some indenting and some scouring and painting. I think the “aha” moment came for this conservative person when he realized there were more like me.

I bought a bed from my friend’s store. They delivered it. We asked if they wanted to take our old downstairs vanity and lights. I had dreams of taking that cabinet, putting a new top on it and finishing it off with one of those cute sinks that sits on top of the cabinet, making a new vanity for my upstairs bathroom. The vision didn’t seem to be there for my better half. As the vanity was being taken to the truck one of the women turned to me and said, “It’s not that we don’t want this, but why don’t you paint it, put a new top on it and one of those cool sinks on top of it for a vanity for you?” Can you see my smile as I describe the moment?

My retired friend has an eye for taking unusual pieces and making them into a beautiful piece of furniture that is unique. I love scouring the countryside with her to see what she is going to pick up next. She repurposes things that the rest of us would throw in the trash.

I do have another little piece of furniture that I have tucked away out of sight until I can create my magic. I actually dug it out of a dumpster. It is an old music cabinet that is sturdy but badly in need of a redo. The bones are good. Yes, people who love to make new out of old, do dumpsters.

One of my favorite things to do when I have writer’s block is to paint, either a crazy wall piece or a chair. My grandchildren request specially painted chairs for their rooms. When their tastes change they ask for a new custom chair painted with whatever their new passion is

I have never felt totally at home in a perfectly decorated tasteful home. I like to visit those perfect places such as bed and breakfasts, but my taste is a jumble and right now being jumbled is in. Things don’t have to match, and different patterns and colors are thrown together and somehow they work.

We feel guilty if our lives are a jumbled mess. Isn’t that what living is all about? We tumble through life, picking up pieces new and old, putting them together to go forward to the future. We carry the old parts of us forward in life, mix it up and it makes us who we are today.

I accept that I am jumbled, that my creativity gets in the way of doing one thing at a time. It is when I fight accepting that I cannot be the one-thing-at-a-time person that my life becomes weighted down with expectations of myself that I can’t fulfill and I get frustrated. I suspect it is the same for my Mr. Conservative.  He is the one-thing-at-a-time person. We work hard to meld the two together for a working relationship.

However you tumble and jumble, however you mix and match, reuse and repurpose whatever it is in your past and mix it with the new from the future. It will be uniquely you.

 

Am I Lost?

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am i lost1There are days when I can’t find myself. In my new book Something About Nothing, I shared one of my columns that I wrote on a lost day. I would like to share it with you to give you a little preview of the snippets of life, my life and how it might relate to yours, that I share in the book. Here it is. If you like it click on the picture of the book to find it on Amazon.

AM I LOST?

 

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” A friend sent me a card a few years ago with those words on the front. The card sits in my office where I can see it every day to give me inspiration.

Did I lose myself? Have you looked for yourself lately? A self-help guru who I listened to recently said to ask yourself these questions: Who are you? Where have you been? Where are you going?

I decided I needed to look for myself and find out if I was lost. How do I start? First, I looked to my childhood friend for answers. She asked me two questions. Do you still play with Barbie dolls? Do we still talk about our dreams with imagination? Of course, I don’t play with Barbie dolls! As far as conversation, we have our husbands, our children, our grandchildren, and our jobs to talk about now. Why would we talk about our dreams?

I called a friend of a little shorter duration. I have only known this friend for twenty-three years. I asked her, “Am I lost?” She asked me two questions: Do you dress like a clown when you entertain nursing home residents? Do we still laugh and dream about our lives after kids? Such silly questions. I have no idea where my clown costume is and we don’t have time to dream. Our work, our children, our grandchildren, and our aches and pains are all the conversation for which we have time. We are old. Dreams?

Next stop was the hubby. Am I lost? He didn’t get this question. I was standing right in front of him, although he did mention something about being more spontaneous many, many years ago before raising children. Who has time for spontaneity? There are bills to pay, children to visit, and then there is just plain tired at the end of the day.

I asked my daughter if I was lost. She asked me one question. “Where is the quilt that you were making for me for my high school graduation seven years ago? (Shh! Remember no one knows that I used to sew!)

Maybe I was lost. Maybe I am still lost. But maybe it is like the card: “Life is about creating yourself.” Who is the me I will create today?

Something About Nothing