Shake and Bake 83: Hearthurt but oh such joys…. blooming everywhere

Shake and Bakes are my quarterly check-ins (CHICKENS!). I use these posts to … shake out the happenings of my work and my  life in general in an attempt to Shake off the bad and Bake in the good. It’s about … gratitude, paying attention and living by the moon. Much thanks to HAVI over at the Fluent Self for inspiration and to APRIL at Big Sky Astrology for her monthly Working with the Moon booklets.

~~o~~ Full Moon of Calming ~~o~~

“Ullo poppets….

Oh so hard to sit me down today.  Hard to come to the chickening.  Hard.  Remember when I used this space each week to trace the hard and the good.  Perhaps it is time to revisit that today.  Lightly.

The Hard:

• a heart hurt.
• the slipping of seemingly well-established practices (rising early and meditating 2x per day).
• epic FAIL-IO on the de-cluttering front this whole month.

The Good:

• a beautiful send-off/celebration for a friend yesterday.  Good stories told, good food, good friends (old and new) gathered in honour of a great woman pulled together by her fabulous children.
• time spent with friends on Thursday and Friday as well.
• a heartfelt gift given and another received.
• releasing and relaxing.
• a return to Work after a strange avoidance.
• a rather LARGE house project completed – we have new “windows” on the front of the camp.  Perfect for watching the approach of thunderstorms over the river.

See…. I do this and it comes to me that this has been a wonderful week.

So why the sadness today?  Strange dreams, I think.  I didn’t remember any dreams, but I woke feeling so sad and awful lonely.  Stemming, no doubt from the aforementioned heart hurt.  A cuddle with the Raggedy Man helped disperse the cloud a bit, but it lingers with me as I move through the day.

I’m just back from a walk up the lane – which also always helps disperse the gloom.  So much … LIFE thriving at the side of the road.  A riot of tiny flowers now – yellows and purples, blues and reds and so very very much green.  And, for me, always the wonder of beautiful stones – knocked loose by wheels and washed by the rain.  Walks do me me much good.

Let us bake that in once again, shall we?

WALKS DO ME MUCH GOOD!

OK… on we go to the de-cluttering front….

 

Week TWO – Φ (phi) air – relationships – scent – mind

1st Quarter to Full Moon (July 12)

• Focus was on… THINKING, Incoming Information and Relationships.

Hmm… well…. there still hasn’t been much physical de-cluttering happening round here.  In fact, I seem to keep bringing more stuff into the house.  Harumph.  I did manage ONE actual 10 minute session of decluttering a surface and it felt rather magnificent. But, so far, there has been no repeat performance.

We did finish off those windows and we also cleaned the oven… but nope… not much de-cluttering per say.

And today I discovered the joy of the 5-minute tidy.  Just now, in fact.  My alarm went off while I was writing this post.  It was my PM SIT alarm.  I often turn it off and say, “OK.  I will go and sit when I finish this task.”  But today I took a different route.  I saved what I have written so far and went and sat for 30 minutes.  Then I did a check-in over on LIFT and then I hit a 5 minute timer and began to tidy…cleared off the end of the bunky where I toss things every day.  Doesn’t count as a “de-clutter” because I’m not getting RID of anything.  But hey – in 5 minutes, The bunky was cleaned off and the covers straightened.  Felt good.

Hmm…. perhaps I’m not ready to de-clutter, but a 5-10 minute tidy would be lovely too.  Added to my evening routine of clearing the kitchen and porch tables, a 10 minute tidy each day could make me feel a LOT better actually.

So let it be written…so let it be done!  (ha ha)

OK… so there’s that but how did this week go – thought wise?

I have been watching my thoughts around de-cluttering.  I want to hold on to things.  I fall into the “I might need that” category.  I might want to read that book again. I might need that mason jar to store left overs in.  I might need that pair of shorts that hasn’t fit me for years…. 

I hope that one day I will be ready to tackle this, but my dear dear hearts…  The de-clutter thing is really bringing me down.  It just isn’t happening at all at all and it is making me sad as I become more and more aware of the clutter I live in.  BLERGH.

I must confess that I have enough trouble these days remembering to brush my hair.

So… yeah… maybe a 10 minute TIDY is more my speed right now.  Nothing wrong with that, eh?

Moving on to take a quick look at this weeks incoming info….I think I have actually cut back a bit.

First off – let me hereby declare that I am in love with my earplugs.

I’ve worn earplugs to bed (no late night radio) most nights this week and it is really helping me with the waking in the night.  I even used them this morning because I just didn’t want to listen to the radio and I didn’t want to ask the Raggedy Man to wear his headphones as he often does now when he is listening to tunes and I am craving silence.  I so crave the silence right now.

I’ve also been offline quite a lot this week, so there hasn’t been too much input from there.

More out in the world with “real folk” this week.  This entails, of course, it’s own special brand of input, and as much as I’ve enjoyed spending time with pals this week –  I’m glad to have the day to myself today.

I need a lot time alone.  This I also know about myself.  There’s two things to remember.  Walks are good and so is time alone.  (bake it in! bake it in!)

As to how this month’s habit is effecting my relationships… well…. hard to say.  I ain’t really DOING the habit, so I don’t see much “effecting” happening.

We are moving into….

Week THREE – Χ (chi) fire – work – vision – will

Full to Last Quarter July 18

• Take time for a review, see if I need to tweak my plan for the moonth, see what there is to Release.
• Focus on Work – clearing up files on the computer and papers or simply continuing the de-cluttering of Sanctuary (AKA – editing).

So…. Let’s just jump straight in then and say that I feel the need right now to tweak the plan.  Instead of the physical de-cluttering I will instead focus on these small TIDYings.  A ten minute session attached to my PM Sit and the clearing of the tables as part of my evening routine.

I will continue to listen and pay attention to Leo’s lovely posts for the rest of the month but I hereby release myself  and move into an … interested observer position as far as this de-clutter module goes.

Wow.

That feels pretty good.  Wheeeeeeee!

I still wanna get those new curtains up and tidy those bookshelves though (heh heh).

And yes… in truth, the editing/reVisioning of Sanctuary is a form of de-cluttering that I AM able to do, so I shall hunker down this week and continue that.

~~o~~

Okay my pals and pallas….

It’s time for me to go and create dinner.  I love cooking and baking.  I’ve rediscovered this, lately.  Yesterday it was such a joy to work at creating a beautiful loaf full of spicy goodness and love to take to the celebration and offer up to the family for their breakfasts this week.  I carried the loaf, warm in my hands, across the river and gave it to my friend and… oh it felt good.  May it nourish them.

I leave you with this lovely quote from Laura Esquivel (author of Like Water for Chocolate)…

The home is a sacred place where you can communicate with the four elements of the universe: earth, water, air and fire.  You mix with your love and emotions to create magic. Through cooking, you raise your spiritual level and balance yourself in a world that is materialistic.

May we eat well this week.

May we find joy and peace as we stir the stew of our one wild and scrumptious life.

Go easy ~p