From January’s first attempts at tackling the freshness of the New Year,
“While many have detailed their goals in a manner worthy of the New Year, I have been floundering in my own Sea of Lists.”
Me
to finding a starting point in the beginning stages within a poem,
“Let us step outside for a moment
From, New Year Poem by May Sarton
As the sun breaks through clouds
And shines on wet newfallen snow,
And breathe the new air.
So much has died that had to die this year.”
to “feeling the freedom of moving forward” with release, lightness & joy...
Goals began forming naturally, without limits. Dropping into loose categories of definition and prioritization.
Included in the mix are what I call ‘quick ToDos & TryOuts’. They surfaced as important periphery components orbiting the developing picture of individual goal categories.
An example of a ‘quick ToDo’ would be a Scrap Wrap-Up. In this case, a swift and decisive finish on a project lingering over the past ten years. This specific Scrap Wrap-Up involved the saved scraps from the original scraps used in creating my “Coffee Beans Means Love to Me” quilt (2014). This was a wall hanging quilt created with irregular shaped scrap strips gathered (dumpster dived*) & kept during our 3-year journey between homes**.
Once this quilt was finished, I had in mind at the time to stitch the scraps of the scraps into mini mats. The thinking being to use them as a bonus marketing item once the recorded/published portions of my Swimming with Swans: the music and vignettes of our three-year journey between homes project*** were released.
In time, I realized that idea embodied more of a lingering emotional need rather than an actual creative or marketing need which in fact the actual quilt already fulfilled. So after a few rounds of fabric purges, I stashed a few select scraps of the scraps into an already existing bin marked, Coffee Related Fabrics. 🙂
Scroll up to 2024 and my coffee mat with accompanying mug rug is a ‘quick ToDo’ finish.
more to come featuring a few musical ‘quick TryOuts’ in part 2
*the story, feelings & circumstances behind the quilt as it was being constructed can be found here.
**our between homes dates: 6/2009-6/2012
***a portion of this project, my Swimming with Swans: Goat Suite (Saga) – The Music and Scores was released March 2022, with its accompanying set of vignettes in the cue for another stab at publishing. Several non-Goat Suite SwS compositions are recorded & fully scored, awaiting the recording of the remaining pieces to complete a final album & score set. Obviously, this has become a long-term project! 🙂
I have to show your coffee station to my wife. She recently created one for her office, but was complaining about how it looks. Yours looks fab, I must say. Leaded, of course. 😉
I’d be honored if Gorgeous took a look. Here’s to simple pleasures!
Piecing things together, tying up loose ends, forging forward. I hear you. I’m doing the same. Trying to bring long time projects to fruition. Feeling a time crunch, only because these projects take so much time and there are so many of them. And insisting on Feeling joy in all I do. Not always easy but so important.
The time crunch thing is what makes my personal need to mindfully assess/address ‘goals, todos & tryouts’ in as focused a manner as is possible without erasing the spark of spontaneity or JOY in the process! 😉
Sounds like we’re on the same wavelength, flower sister!
Like Linda, I’m glad that you are returning to the studio. Long term projects can be the best, allowing things to germinate and develop organically. (I know and appreciate that you are familiar with my poetry), my last collection I think, was the weakest of the three *
Written over the shortest period of time to mark my 50th, I was still a few poems short when the deadline was upon me. I resorted to a couple of lines in the public domain to kick-start my creativity, and late on the final night I wrote two about the singers I was listening to in the wee small hours: Stina, and Sofia.
*There are still some in there that I’m quite proud of and would include in a ‘Selected Poems’ collection 😊
Thank you for this, Andy. You are describing a facet of our lives as ‘working, true’ (he)artists that we often forget. I don’t know about the ‘weakest link’, but your latest collection is part of your on-going, evolving body of work reflecting who you are, how you express your (he)art, developing your voice and ‘staying in the game’ as a poet. This is what it means to be a ‘true’ (he)artist. And as you know, we learn from each release, yet we still bring our (he)art to the ‘outside world’ because it demands this of us!
The fact that we care about quality makes each ‘release’/performance/etc resonate with individuals more so than if it were generated by AI and/or someone who just decides to plunk out anything because it’s so easy to do on multitudinous social media platforms. Anyway, I digress! I look forward to a future ‘Selected Poems’ collection…but I think you’ve many more volumes to write/publish/do readings on before that becomes a completed project!
Goals always leave me feeling like a failure, or a child getting punished. There is nothing positive about goals. On the other hand, lists are a lifesaver, and I find great success in scratching-off what has been accomplished. Hubby knows the back of old envelopes are my list-makers. I love your quilt story/evolution and the coffee mug mats. Best to you, Laura.
I suspect you have goals, but in a way that doesn’t make you feel like a child getting punished. For myself, I realized I needed to reign in my Sea of Lists into some cohesive form. Some handily fit under already existing umbrella goal categories leaving others to shine more on their own for me to decide if indeed they were really worthy of my attention.
Thank you for your personal take on the subject! I’m sure your students never felt like failures! 🙂
Thank you for this, Laura. You sum it up beautifully. 😀
You’re very welcome, dear Jennie.
🙂
Me thinks it might.
Apologies for the misreading. Coffee Bean quilt looked brand new!
No apologies necessary…just wanted to clarify.(especially since that’s also a 10yrs younger me!) HA!
Good to read that things are lighter and brighter. Your Coffee Bean quilt is a lovely manifestation of the brightness. Well done on stitching the scraps.
Your phrase “sea of lists” reminds me (not sure why) of “slough of despond” (from John Bunyon).
‘slough of despond’ sounds a bit more ominous…but then that’s John Bunyon, right? BTW: the Coffee Bean quilt pix was taken in 2014…I mean, 10 years ago! Doing this little ‘quick ToDo’ was way overdue, me thinks! (I wonder if ‘me thinks’ could pass as a Bunyonism?!)
A sense of grounding is very good, and there is nothing wrong with having a Sea of Lists! Just this week, I reminded my Mom about having written down a password that I had given her. Her response, “Which piece of paper did I write that on?” Ha, ha! The thing about the scrap…they will wait until the time is ripe. They may even multiply! 🙂
A ‘Laura’ to the rescue – we’ve got each other’s backs! HA! I guess scraps could be a metaphor for ideas: because, they often wait until the time is ripe…and then always multiply… How’s that for an intellectual elevation of the lowly scrap?!? 🙂
What a beautiful quilt … and the mat and mug rug! I love the idea of using scraps to make useful and artful things. It can be harder work than just buying new materials, but so satisfying. 🙂
You’re right about it being ‘harder’ to use scraps, but really, that’s part of the fun of it: the challenge!!!! Thanks for stopping by Marie.
Funny how those projects become long-term when we didn’t think they were! But hooray, you used scraps!
Oh yeah, I know you get it, Zip. But the thrill of being on a roll with a project we love is worth it!
I love the term “Sea of Lists.” I used to tease my mom about this because she had a list for everything. More than once, she would say, “I know I wrote that down somewhere on a list. I just can’t remember which one.” Any bit of progress, short or long-term, is a step in the right direction. You go, girl!
That’s hilarious! I think she would have understood my dilemma well. And you’re right about any bit of progress ‘counts’. It’s all part of the process. 🙂
Laura, I’m so glad you’ll return to the recording studio with your finished compositions! So exciting! You have been busy! How do you feel, now that you’re at this stage in the process? Love your coffee mat and mug rugs! The finished quilt has so many beautiful colors!
At this stage, I feel like there’s been a redefinition & re-encouragement of purpose in projects that are important to me. Plus, a sense of ‘grounding’…if that makes any sense. 🙂
Thanks so much for your support, L.Marie. It means a lot.