Re-start!

So I've decided to start blogging again. Mainly because I've figured out its going to help streamline my thought processes, act as a visual diary for myself, maybe help me in my future yet undecided business and hopefully inspire others. 

It's been a long time coming and there is so much to explore regarding blogging that its downright confusing and has prevented me from actually starting at all. 

My initial question to myself was ' what on earth am I going to write about?' Followed quickly by, 'does anyone really care?' 

On contemplation I've discovered that I've got so much to write about that now that simple fact has caused a bit of a drama, plus I care. Or at least if I want to get my shit together I need to care. 

My life is so diverse with so many things to write about, should I just choose one thing to blog about? I feel like that fully limits who I am. Would my readers be interested in reading about so many diverse things? Would I keep a regular following if one week I wrote about Ayurveda and alcohol the next, motorbikes the next week then art or consciousness? Then, how long should a blog be? Should I write in long hand or straight on the computer or iPad? Does it matter? The importance of writing longhand vs typing does make a difference, I've read this over and over in various places. 

Plus I want my writing to be authentic, truthful and real. Of course this means exposing my innermost self to my reader and on any given day I fully manage to give myself the shits let alone anyone else! 

What to name the blog? Do I run with the name purplefunkything that I've had for eons or do I start some thing new? 

In the long run I'm guessing that these things will automatically sort themselves out through me just starting the process and blogs will probably separate the,selves into their own categories with their own identities. 

To start with my blogging is really being written for me. To help me be a better writer and create more clarity direction and purpose in my life with a future view of helping me start my own, as yet undefined new career and I'm inviting you, the reader, to join me on my life adventures. 

xL

In Sync

A couple of months back I purchased a small chiller bag, the type you stick your sandwiches in and a frozen block. The translucent colors and serene design caught my eye. Love the depth, the simplicity. Prior to that I'd been keeping another artists work as an open tab on my iPhone, one of those 'get back to it when I can' things. Bright joyful paintings that required more investigation. Yesterday I clicked on a book link about intuitive painting. Here's where I found Flora Bowely, the artist of my chiller bag. Unique and alive paintings swirled around my computer screen. Circles and birds and all things shining. I was hooked. I decided even with my hellishly busy life to join the five week painting course. This morning I decided to follow up the saved tab from an artist called Lise. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the painting that originally attracted my attention was done in the same alive fashion that Flora paints in because surprise surprise it was painted at one of her courses! I love it when the universe does thing like this - I know I'm heading in the right direction :)

A quick blog  from the 7th of Feb that Im just getting around to posting now...

I watched the interview that Tam did with Jane Davenport.

Loved it on so many levels :D

Would love to go to Bali on the September course..

Asked for a sign from the universe if the course would be of benefit to me.

Since seeing the movie Bangkok Hilton (with Nicole Kidman), when I was young, I have avoided every Asian destination..(A bit like watching Jaws and avoiding the ocean!) 

I purchased fuel today.

The lady serving me had a ladybug tattooed on her left hand...

HHmmmmmmmmmmmm!....!

iPhone technology

Ok so I found blogger for iPhone so now there is no excuse :)

Wet weather blues?

Sitting here at work on nightshift and reading Kelly Rae's flying lessons and wondering just where my life is heading. My 120 day challenge is hoofing along quite well with something creative happening every day. I feel like I I lose track a lot and even though I'm painting, drawing and creating I feel like I'm doing the 'head in the sand' thing with the rest of my life. I managed to read a couple of great home improvement mags on the way to work yesterday and got all inspired again - so many creative things I want to do at the Sapphire house and a flash new retainer wall at Mt Chalmers...so many cool things and so few $$. I'll be very happy when the air-con finally gets installed along with the new kitchen bench top and pantry doors. Just started raining again and not looking like we're getting sent home so Internet research till the battery goes flat!

120 day challenge mind games

The theory behind the 120 Day Do What You Love Challenge is that for 120 days you commit to doing something you love every day and keep track of it publicly.  Sounds simple enough but is it? What the founder behind the idea discovered was that it can be very challenging indeed. Why? Life demands get in our way, situations, other people and even our self talk prevent us from doing what we love. Even if we are aware of this and start doing something, somewhere along the way we make other things more important and loose focus. Why is it I ‘reward’ myself with an hour of painting after the dishes are done? Why don’t I paint first?

            Even the very question, What Do You Love, has played on my mind since I found about the Challenge. First of all my response was…er…nothing? Knowing this can’t be true I thought about this on a daily basis only to discover that I indeed love a number of things and was doing pretty well none of them on a regular basis. 

            So now armed with this knowledge, suddenly it became very difficult to choose just one thing to do for 120 days. There would also be times where it would be very challenging just to do the thing I loved due to travel and work commitments. I got stuck in my mind about this and pretty much started stressing myself out! Pollyanna (the creator of the concept), bailed me out with a quick laser like 15 minute coaching session designed to go into the heart to see what my intuition said. Dropping into innocence (a William Whitecloud technique), I hopped into a circle and asked for a symbol, a sign of what would serve me the best for 120 days. As I had already chosen mixed media I was curious as to what symbol I would get. Out of the mist came a big solid word…Create. Mind kicks in again. Great create what. I can create something daily from the list of 10 things I love easily. I referred to my list again. I could make this as easy or as hard as I liked. Goldilocks and the three bears came to mind. Big bear = too much, baby bear = not challenging enough and the middle bear = just right.

            It has been interesting in itself to just discover this course and look at my life, the things I love, the way my mind works and they way I’m utilising my time. I spend most of my time in reaction, not doing the things I love and oscillating between resentment, confusion and burden. My life has been a lot like choosing a theme for the challenge; I love so many things, how can I choose just one to focus on, thereby making choice too large and not focusing on one thing well instead, choosing to spread my time thinly over a number of options.

            I look at my list of things I love and logically decide to prioritise. Ahhh, in the head again Libby, think mouse in a wheel…Then I decide to go back inside and have another look at this ‘create’ word. I get a little black bird. Small. Colourful red chest. Next I get a snake. Turns into the snake that eats it tail, Ouroboros. Turns from a real snake into a gold metal image. So what I get from the bird is keep it small, small is powerful. A rare little black bird near Alpha has stopped the development of a proposed large mine site. Red – passion and energy. Ouroboros to me means esoteric, mystery, alchemy, spiritual and gold represents alchemy again in the form of changing my life from lead to gold, what I’m aiming for, the highest ideal so spiritual gold!

            I go inside again for clarity. Create Spiritual Gold in small, powerful colourful, steps. Ok. My mind straight away wants to know how, wants to know the process. I want to change my life, turn it from lead to gold and this process is the vehicle. I’m being asked to trust, to go inside daily to check in.

           

I am going to create daily for 120 days based on the list of things I love, with the intention of changing my life from lead to gold.

I will Art Journal my feelings, intuitions and learnings using mixed media as a form of Alchemy. I will paint, draw, create poetry, make sculptures, use photography or anything that I class as creative. 

Goodbye my other blog.....the art of streamlining :)