Victory Garden
Everything that I touch becomes art by virtue of my being an artist. On my taxes this year, I may put "visionary" as my occupation. It is how I occupy myself. I was reading Beagley's post on 10,000 hours of effort and those rare geniuses who succeed at what they put their hand to. What struck me was that no one who put in the 10,000 hours of effort failed. Not one. It got me thinking about what I become talented at by default. I resist specialization, or rather, I embrace lots of different kinds of specialization. My roommate was telling a friend about me, about how she can't believe my youth and the amazing number of different things I do with my life, and the excitement with which I talk about them. It's become a bit of a joke around the house. I worked today in the nearly-freezing rain and driving wind, and it was awesome! It's true, though. You can change your whole life just by changing your perception of it.
I thought of how much time in my life I have spent in useless pursuits like television watching or dicking around on the internets. The average U.S. child watches four hours of TV per day, it only takes them 6 years and nine months to become television watching virtuosos. Also a TV is on an average of 8 hours per day in the average U.S. home. At that rate, it only takes 3 and a half years to become the John Lennon of passive media consumption. All this data doesn't include youTube, or icanhascheezburger.com or Japanese fish porn, or texting, or iPhone usage, etc. etc. etc.
Before I had this information in front of me, I saw that media was stealing my life. My precious hours and minutes of actual living, breathing creative will. I decided to end my television watching career before it invaded my brain any further. I chose instead to cultivate all those little things that catch my attention. My prefrontal cortex is ripe with possibility. Intention wafts off of me like fumes that intoxicate passers-by. I laugh out loud and say This could be your life. You can will have all you ever dreamed and then some.
I've been planning my Victory Garden. Eating locally is a concept I've become rather attached to. Nourishing myself takes on a new, more spiritual, dimension when I know those who have grown the food I eat. More so, when I have a hand in the production of that food myself. I'm taking over Erica's community garden plot next week and will be planting a garden there, as well as building raised beds in the side yard and tomatoes along our huge, south-facing, white wall, which reflects every ounce of all day-sun right into our corner of the world. There will be jars of pickles and jewel-toned preserves lining the walls of my basement. There will be the unabashed pleasure of eating sugar snap peas and sun-warmed strawberries directly off the vine. Summer squash, brussels sprouts, spicy mustard greens, cauliflower, shallots, haricots verts, egyptian walking onions will be my little children. When I have zucchini coming out my ears, I'll have a rockin dinner party with songs on guitar and shouts of laughter in the soft darkness. I will.
I am often surprised by the power of intention. The signal that is sent out into the Universe when a decision has been made. I have decided that I am an artist and my selection of media is wide. I am a painter, sculptor, ceramist, letter-writer, comfort-giver, baker, candlestick-maker. I am a letter-writer, straight up writer, science aficianado, hugger, lover, savorer, women's canoer, coxswain. I am.
Every moment is a gift. That's why it's called "the present."
I thought of how much time in my life I have spent in useless pursuits like television watching or dicking around on the internets. The average U.S. child watches four hours of TV per day, it only takes them 6 years and nine months to become television watching virtuosos. Also a TV is on an average of 8 hours per day in the average U.S. home. At that rate, it only takes 3 and a half years to become the John Lennon of passive media consumption. All this data doesn't include youTube, or icanhascheezburger.com or Japanese fish porn, or texting, or iPhone usage, etc. etc. etc.
Before I had this information in front of me, I saw that media was stealing my life. My precious hours and minutes of actual living, breathing creative will. I decided to end my television watching career before it invaded my brain any further. I chose instead to cultivate all those little things that catch my attention. My prefrontal cortex is ripe with possibility. Intention wafts off of me like fumes that intoxicate passers-by. I laugh out loud and say This could be your life. You can will have all you ever dreamed and then some.
I've been planning my Victory Garden. Eating locally is a concept I've become rather attached to. Nourishing myself takes on a new, more spiritual, dimension when I know those who have grown the food I eat. More so, when I have a hand in the production of that food myself. I'm taking over Erica's community garden plot next week and will be planting a garden there, as well as building raised beds in the side yard and tomatoes along our huge, south-facing, white wall, which reflects every ounce of all day-sun right into our corner of the world. There will be jars of pickles and jewel-toned preserves lining the walls of my basement. There will be the unabashed pleasure of eating sugar snap peas and sun-warmed strawberries directly off the vine. Summer squash, brussels sprouts, spicy mustard greens, cauliflower, shallots, haricots verts, egyptian walking onions will be my little children. When I have zucchini coming out my ears, I'll have a rockin dinner party with songs on guitar and shouts of laughter in the soft darkness. I will.
I am often surprised by the power of intention. The signal that is sent out into the Universe when a decision has been made. I have decided that I am an artist and my selection of media is wide. I am a painter, sculptor, ceramist, letter-writer, comfort-giver, baker, candlestick-maker. I am a letter-writer, straight up writer, science aficianado, hugger, lover, savorer, women's canoer, coxswain. I am.
Every moment is a gift. That's why it's called "the present."