Ten minutes on the stoop

Well, we decided to put off our Charleston trip because we just have too much going on here at home... Some day we'll get there again. 

So, this morning I took the camera and sat on the front steps for 10 minutes and just snapped photos of what caught my eye, starting with very happy and toasty feet in my felted slippers. 

While I sat there, I was thinking about how my creativity seems to go in waves (which is not a new observation - I think I've even blogged about it). I seem to be very focused for a while and then I get inspired and want to go into more and different directions.

I start doing that and then there's the fine line between being totally inspired and completely overwhelmed. When I get to the overwhelmed part, it's not long before I start to focus again on one or two things. Expansion and contraction - again and again. I find it somewhat frustrating as I am always yearning for continuity.

But then I got this image of us breathing - we breathe in and everything expands, and then we breathe out and everything contracts. It's all part of the same breath, isn't it?

I just need to change my point of view, my focus. Sometimes I want to focus on all the possibilities and then again I want to look at just one thing in more detail.

Maybe if you don't focus with a wide angle, you miss out on what's possible and what might be your next creative endeavor.

And at the same time, if you forget the close-up view, you'll miss the magic that is in the details.

I also find it interesting that when I am in one of these phases of being overwhelmed by all the possibilities, a new area of focus appears.

Maybe those times of expansion and seeming chaos are necessary for moving forward. Even though I sort of pull back again, my focus always has changed slightly and it propels me forward and often into new directions.

I remember when I started painting - that happened after about a year of not knowing what I was doing or what my new purpose was (I had just left a career and we had moved to a different part of the country). Over that year and the next, I sort of learned to lean into that feeling and that's when a new direction emerged and my life became better than it had ever been.

Back to my 10 minutes on the front porch - do you notice something with the birdhouse? It seems that the final lease has not been signed yet. Will it be the bluebirds or the chickadees?

And last but not least, I started knitting the border on my soft lacy scarf and made it into a ruffle - I somehow needed it to have a more feminine look. It came out very nicely and can now be found in my Etsy shop.

That's about all the news from here for today. Now I am going to my studio/office to spend some time with our tax returns. Oh, the fun of it...

I hope you are all having a beautiful weekend!