[UPDATE: I've been asked to post the text from my Life Lessons page; I'm putting it under the cut.]
... what I've been doing. While I've not been blogging. While I've not been writing.
Yesterday & Today, the scrapbooking class I've been taking from Ali Edwards, is winding down. This is the last week.
The most difficult assignment for me was this one – to take a picture of myself every day for a week, and do a layout using my own handwriting:
Template from Ali Edwards
Papers from onelittlebird, Shabby Princess, Reflective Scrapbooking, Honey Designs, Karla Dudley, Vera Lim.
Brads from Basic Grey, Anna Aspnes, Karla Dudley.
The "journaling" reads:
This week has been hedged in grief – my own, and all of Japan's. It felt odd to be smiling into mirrors during this time.
I have been reminded that pretending to be happier than I am works sometimes, if only briefly.
Looking at these images, I think: This woman looks familiar. I rarely see her. Does she resemble me? Do I know her?
17 March 02011 ~SB
This assignment was the most fun, to record my "life lessons":
Template from Ali Edwards
Paper from Anna Aspnes
And this one is where I began to feel that I can do something with this, beyond "scrapbooking":
Template from Ali Edwards
Papers from Anna Aspnes, except for the lower right, which is from Ali Edwards.
From here, I have moved on to something else. More later.
Grandma taught me that worry is a waste. If you can do something, do it. If you can’t, don’t waste energy on worry. • If he says you’re too good for him, believe him. • If you can’t enjoy the small things, your life will have little joy. Small things are myriad; large things are few. • I regret not picking up the camera and the pen years before I did. • Anticipating loss sucks pleasure from the present. • Procrastination works. You just have to give it time. • Some people require vast spaciousness – empty time, and solitude – to create. I am one of those people. • There are ‘bad’ people, people who cannot feel empathy, people who will serve themselves at any cost to others. But they are few. Most of us are just trying to survive & thrive as best we can. • We make our own meaning. • Just learned something? Take a nap. Sleep helps learning stick. • Pets provide perspective. • Sometimes ‘good enough’ is good enough. • There are no stupid questions. There are questions without answers. There are questions one is not required to answer. But there are no stupid questions. • Ask. • People who think they know everything learn nothing. • When I spend time with babies, toddlers, and children, I see the world with fresh eyes. • Don’t take it personally. • Journal regularly. If done sporadically, life seen through the journal seems to be a series of tragedies. • Take pictures. Keep notes. Memory is a crocheted doily; it’s full of holes. • ‘Genius’ is not about I.Q. or knowledge; it’s willingness to look the fool. • Knowing when to hold on, and when to let go – that’s the trick. Have I learned that trick? No. • I am more important than I think. • I am less important than I think. • Outcome is out of my control. • Almost nothing is in my control. • Because I love comfort and security, it’s important that I push myself off the cliff now & then. • As much as I love comfort & security, I fear stagnation more. • Why must I learn the same lessons, again & again & again? • Sometimes ‘being myself’ pisses people off. • A somewhat twisted sense of humor helps me survive and enjoy it. • Putting things off can be a good thing. For example, I can always kill myself tomorrow. • My moods and feelings are transitory, and not always connected to / arising from actual events. • Being of use – being productive – is really important to me. Probably too important. • My grandmother didn’t just save my life; she saved the meaningfulness of my life. • Often the why is less important than the how – how things are; how to change them. Or how to accept them. • Your friends don’t like or trust your new sweetheart? Think about it. • I don’t mind fighting, but I want the fight to be fair. • I hate crazy-making behavior. I want people to mean what they say, say what they mean, and tell the truth. • I value, and try to maintain, integrity (adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty; the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished.) I am not always successful. • It is possible to own / take responsibility for my own feelings and reactions, without excusing the other person’s behavior, and without permitting that behavior to continue. • Boundaries! • To love someone for who they are not (who they were, who they might be, who they could be, who they pretend to be) is no kindness to either of you. • What is true and what works are not always the same thing. • The problem with self-deception is that I don’t know when I’m doing it. • Some friendships seem like they’ll last forever, but don’t. • Grief is a physical pain. • Perception isn’t everything, but it’s a lot. • Philip told me, twenty-five years ago, that I need to let someone love me. He’s still right. • Rather than hiding in shame about my messiness, I need to accommodate it. • Sweet and nice are not the same as kind. • Organized religion – dogma – is dangerous. • Dogs, on the other hand, are a full-life necessity. • Nothing elicits memory like music. • Not all illnesses are psychological. • I believe in science, in the scientific method. It may not always reach the right conclusion, but it has a built-in corrective factor. • Solitude and cats are both required for me to live a balanced life. • The only way to keep squirrels out of the bird-feeder is to feed them. • I need beauty, and I can find it almost anywhere. • I want to always be a student. • Snoring is tolerable from someone you love. • I know very little. • The other animals are much more intelligent than we think. • Relationships with cats, like relationships with other humans, ebb and flow. Relationships with dogs are pretty steady. •
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Your doing and excellent job! Hopefully the next thing is going back to your writing.
Posted by: Cathy | 21 March 2011 at 08:54 PM