Savouring Creativity and Snowstorms...

It was a WILD weekend of snow and rain and wind and flickering power and then more snow.  It is only just ending, but instead of worrying, we took it all in stride and stayed indoors.

We played games as a family, took the tree down, tidied rooms in preparation for getting back to a routine this week, made our turkey carcass into soup and I wrote up some thank you cards to the many people who helped my family while I was away at my father’s funeral.

A New Year stretches before us full of creative possibilities, but we have to look for them, embrace them and take advantage of even the smallest moments.

I also have to learn not to be such a perfectionist!  Bethany’s scarf is done and I’ll take a picture of it tomorrow as soon as my camera recharges fully.  I took it along to New Year’s Eve celebrations at a friend’s house and left it in sleep mode rather than off, so it ran down.

Erin’s scarf is on it’s 3rd try because I was trying to find a pattern for her red wool that was different from her sister’s, but Yarn Harlot’s single row scarf  has probably ruined me for most other scarf patterns. Sigh!  Finally, Erin gave me this look tonight that said “Will you just make up your mind and knit something!  School goes back on Wednesday and there is WAY too much snow out there now not to have a funky scarf!” (or at least that’s what I interpreted the look to say... it was during one of the intense battle scenes of the 3rd Lord of the Rings movie, so I can’t be sure I interpreted teenager glare right!

Mother Nature throws us all some challenges now and then.  I must admit that even though Winter can last a bit too long sometimes in my part of the world, I love the fact that snowstorms can force us to just take a break from the business of life and stay in one place.  Unlike tornadoes, droughts, hurricanes or mudslides, they aren’t that life threatening... just cold.  Maybe we need to impose that kind of escapes for ourselves even when it isn’t due to a storm.

INHALE:  I am sure that most of us now have a few new calendars hanging up in the house.  I sat down to fill our Master calendar in the kitchen with all the appointments that have been piling up on bits of paper until I hung the new one and found myself getting very tense.  So I got up and went looking for the beautiful gift my sister sent me, the Pathways to Peace calendar from Ministry of the Arts .  Instead of places to write things, there are suggestions for each day filling up the squares.  It is going to hang in my bedroom so that each day, I can look at the beautiful artwork and take those inspirational challenges or quotes with me into the day.

EXHALE:  Find a colour of pen that you like and take a look at the month that stretches now before you.  Where can you carve out some time for yourself? Time to spend with someone special? Time to indulge in a creative pastime that always seems to fall to the wayside because of chores and commitments.  THIS is the year when you need to plan moments for yourself, even 15 minutes at a time.  THIS is the year to embrace those opportunities, no matter how fleeting, whenever they present themselves. Go ahead and mark out your time now before the month fills up too quickly.  You will feel SO much better for it.  I know that I do!