Feng Shui by Donna Warner
There have been some changes at my house. Not large ones…fifteen minute ones…but the results are large. For a week, my sink has been clean. Not just clean (which includes the gross goop which had collected under the faucet covers), but shining. And the baked-on crud in the microwave? Gone. The clothes? All washed. Washed, folded and put away. My bathroom is clean. A tiny corner of my flowerbed is ready for spring herbs and marigolds, and I am sure I will have zinnias blooming this summer, the way I’ve hoped for three years now. Space aliens haven’t spirited me away and left the daughter my blessed mother wished she had. I still have books stacked in the hall, and the extra bedroom and the writing room require a map to navigate. But their time is coming, in fifteen minutes stretches.
You might ask what this has to do with writing or queens? I’ll tell you—order out of chaos. It seems as if most of my life, I have been running full steam ahead, dogs and children off the tracks, or I’ve been goofing off. Either way it seems my days, indeed, my life, often has evaporated while I haven’t been paying attention. If something needs doing, I can do it. But if I have a goal, or a small dream, I am easily distracted. Often I feel as if it’s the night before a term paper is due, and my note cards are jumbled and sparse. In fact, when Allyn and I discussed my editing Grab the Queen Power, I indicated my need to sneak up on her manuscript, to avoid the term-paper syndrome. Instead, I jumped into the soup of editing like the ship was sinking and all the lifeboats were gone. Neither way is the method I want to use to navigate my life.
But then the Queens’ Forum came along, and I had the opportunity to listen and speak to women who are creating the life they want. Instead of cleaning the kitchen, I played on the forums. And took notes about how other women managed to stay on task as they invented their own lives. Jaw Jaw speaks of beginning to organize her writing life by slapping sticky notes on her jacket. I wish I could find that post, but I have already looked way past my fifteen minutes.
The Queen of Step lets us know the dream life isn’t always what we imagine when she laughs about making her work-at-home occupation a ‘Vocation/Vacation’ for young women who want to test-drive the life of a mother/wife/at-home-writer. She says: “We've actually had people request to take a V-V with ME! Well...we try to make the V-Vs really active, and unless they want to try to swim in my roller coaster of a head, I'm afraid they'd be pretty bored...I can see it now.........Well, first we're going to take my children to school, then we'll go back to my home office...but first we'll stop in the kitchen for coffee and check the dogs' water and food bowls... now we're going to sit at the computer for 7 hours, check email obsessively, write, juggle too many projects, take a break to check the QueenPower forum, make some phone calls (excuse all the dogs barking and pawing at you - I do work from my home office, after all, and their dog door is in my office)...lunch? sure, just bring it in here - we'll eat in front of the computer...oh, is it 3:30 already? I hear the school bus outside (excuse the dogs going wild - happens every day)...we'll take a break to say hello to my kids, hear about their day, sign folders, approve the snacks they choose, give the evil eye if they make a move to the computer or TV without doing their homework first...then it's back to the computer for another hour before we start dinner (what do we have that's healthy and we can make FAST?)...now it's back to the computer for another hour...my husband is home...now he'll come share the office with us for a while, and we won't get much work done because we'll talk...everyone is getting hungry so we better finish dinner...wait - where are you going??...that was just the first shift!...o.k., o.k., take a 3 hour break and meet me back in my office at 9:30pm, then we'll work on the computer until midnight, maybe 1 a.m. or even 2:30 (if we can't stand sitting in the desk chair any longer, we'll pull out the laptop and work on the couch in the family room)....wait!...where are you going?”
Did you change your mind and stick around? Still determined to have that life you dreamed of? Queen Cookie has more information for us. She says you must prioritize, delegate, automate, re-evaluate, and enjoy…a five-step formula for being , and mother, wife, CEO and Queen of your life.
Okay, but I was still missing a piece—or a backbone, initiative, or focus—whatever is required to get it all done without discovering I was dog-tired and sleepy, and I hadn’t finished the essay again today. I followed Queen Jaw Jaw’s advice. I bought sticky pads, notebook paper, appointment calendars. I started tracking my time to see where it was hemorrhaging.
Then Queens Dawn and Clarissa mentioned something called Flylady and fifteen minutes. Off I went to investigate (better, my dear, than toting out the trash). Flylady suggested I could reclaim my life in five, ten, and fifteen minute increments, beginning with cleaning my sink.
I gave it try. And it’s worked for a week. Not only worked, but it’s fun. When I do something for fifteen minutes, I really can see the result; I don’t experience the trapped feeling that the task will never get done, and anyway will just have to be done over again. Now I look forward to the next time I can do a little more. It’s true. Where I saw weeds, now I see the possibility for zinnias.
But more than that, I am doing it all for me. Not for my mother, not for company, not for my family. By taking these small definite steps, I am claiming my house. And even better, now I can write for an hour and love it. I can love the one I’m with. Bit by bit, I am claiming more time for writing. I am fitting into my life.
Here’s a fact about your dreams. Unless you do the steps necessary to nurture them, they will not manifest. And if you have to step over the trash to take those steps, you have slowed the process, often until it’s dead in the water. Queen Cookie was right…if you are too tired to enjoy the life your living, even if it’s the one you’ve dreamed of, your dreams are unfulfilled.
Feng Shui is the practice (and it can be an art) of positioning objects according to the positive and negative effects of the flow of chi, or energy. Our dreams are our energy. When they are blocked, we are blocked. Our physical backgrounds can mirror our inner energy. What Flylady has done for me is to open my home to the flow of chi. This week I have not been stopped by dust in the corners, or my usual lament, not enough time to do it all. Flylady suggests taking baby steps and utilizing small increments of time. It works for dishes. And I must ask myself, if zinnias are possible, why not essays? Or books?
This month I invite you to look at how time flows through your life. My momma always said you can tell what a person values by what she gives her time to. We all know when push comes to shove, we make time for the really important elements of our lives. April’s Queens Write about Writing theme is about scheduling the life you were meant to live. Are you creating your dream life? If not, what’s holding you back? Have you created the life you’ve dreamed of, only to discover you’re exhausted? Do you have time to tell us about it? Have you found balance in the life you want and the life your living? If so, we need to know what you are doing. We’ll be publishing essays this month on Dreams and Time…and your dream life doesn’t have to be about writing. Don’t want to write a blog article? Just contact me and I’ll incorporate your comments on the blog.
© Donna Warner, April, 2005 all rights reserved
Flylady’s hints and techniques can be found at
http://flylady.net/index.asp
Queen Jaw JawThe Queen of Experiences
http://www.shoalswoman.com/
http://www.penwomanship.com/
http://www.themonthlyview.com/
Kelly Kirkendoll Shafer (Queen of Step)Founder, Stepfamilies Work!A Place for Stepfamilies to Find Help, Hope and InspirationAuthor, 29 Ways to Make Your Stepfamily Work
http://www.stepfamilieswork.com/
http://www.shafercommunications.com/
Queen Cookie
The Dessert BoxDelectable desserts delivered to your door!
http://www.thedessertbox.com/
Queen Clarissa
http://www.travelingtealady.com/
Donna Warner
http://beinginamerica.blogspot.com/
QueenPower.com
http://www.queenpower.com
disclaimer
You might ask what this has to do with writing or queens? I’ll tell you—order out of chaos. It seems as if most of my life, I have been running full steam ahead, dogs and children off the tracks, or I’ve been goofing off. Either way it seems my days, indeed, my life, often has evaporated while I haven’t been paying attention. If something needs doing, I can do it. But if I have a goal, or a small dream, I am easily distracted. Often I feel as if it’s the night before a term paper is due, and my note cards are jumbled and sparse. In fact, when Allyn and I discussed my editing Grab the Queen Power, I indicated my need to sneak up on her manuscript, to avoid the term-paper syndrome. Instead, I jumped into the soup of editing like the ship was sinking and all the lifeboats were gone. Neither way is the method I want to use to navigate my life.
But then the Queens’ Forum came along, and I had the opportunity to listen and speak to women who are creating the life they want. Instead of cleaning the kitchen, I played on the forums. And took notes about how other women managed to stay on task as they invented their own lives. Jaw Jaw speaks of beginning to organize her writing life by slapping sticky notes on her jacket. I wish I could find that post, but I have already looked way past my fifteen minutes.
The Queen of Step lets us know the dream life isn’t always what we imagine when she laughs about making her work-at-home occupation a ‘Vocation/Vacation’ for young women who want to test-drive the life of a mother/wife/at-home-writer. She says: “We've actually had people request to take a V-V with ME! Well...we try to make the V-Vs really active, and unless they want to try to swim in my roller coaster of a head, I'm afraid they'd be pretty bored...I can see it now.........Well, first we're going to take my children to school, then we'll go back to my home office...but first we'll stop in the kitchen for coffee and check the dogs' water and food bowls... now we're going to sit at the computer for 7 hours, check email obsessively, write, juggle too many projects, take a break to check the QueenPower forum, make some phone calls (excuse all the dogs barking and pawing at you - I do work from my home office, after all, and their dog door is in my office)...lunch? sure, just bring it in here - we'll eat in front of the computer...oh, is it 3:30 already? I hear the school bus outside (excuse the dogs going wild - happens every day)...we'll take a break to say hello to my kids, hear about their day, sign folders, approve the snacks they choose, give the evil eye if they make a move to the computer or TV without doing their homework first...then it's back to the computer for another hour before we start dinner (what do we have that's healthy and we can make FAST?)...now it's back to the computer for another hour...my husband is home...now he'll come share the office with us for a while, and we won't get much work done because we'll talk...everyone is getting hungry so we better finish dinner...wait - where are you going??...that was just the first shift!...o.k., o.k., take a 3 hour break and meet me back in my office at 9:30pm, then we'll work on the computer until midnight, maybe 1 a.m. or even 2:30 (if we can't stand sitting in the desk chair any longer, we'll pull out the laptop and work on the couch in the family room)....wait!...where are you going?”
Did you change your mind and stick around? Still determined to have that life you dreamed of? Queen Cookie has more information for us. She says you must prioritize, delegate, automate, re-evaluate, and enjoy…a five-step formula for being , and mother, wife, CEO and Queen of your life.
Okay, but I was still missing a piece—or a backbone, initiative, or focus—whatever is required to get it all done without discovering I was dog-tired and sleepy, and I hadn’t finished the essay again today. I followed Queen Jaw Jaw’s advice. I bought sticky pads, notebook paper, appointment calendars. I started tracking my time to see where it was hemorrhaging.
Then Queens Dawn and Clarissa mentioned something called Flylady and fifteen minutes. Off I went to investigate (better, my dear, than toting out the trash). Flylady suggested I could reclaim my life in five, ten, and fifteen minute increments, beginning with cleaning my sink.
I gave it try. And it’s worked for a week. Not only worked, but it’s fun. When I do something for fifteen minutes, I really can see the result; I don’t experience the trapped feeling that the task will never get done, and anyway will just have to be done over again. Now I look forward to the next time I can do a little more. It’s true. Where I saw weeds, now I see the possibility for zinnias.
But more than that, I am doing it all for me. Not for my mother, not for company, not for my family. By taking these small definite steps, I am claiming my house. And even better, now I can write for an hour and love it. I can love the one I’m with. Bit by bit, I am claiming more time for writing. I am fitting into my life.
Here’s a fact about your dreams. Unless you do the steps necessary to nurture them, they will not manifest. And if you have to step over the trash to take those steps, you have slowed the process, often until it’s dead in the water. Queen Cookie was right…if you are too tired to enjoy the life your living, even if it’s the one you’ve dreamed of, your dreams are unfulfilled.
Feng Shui is the practice (and it can be an art) of positioning objects according to the positive and negative effects of the flow of chi, or energy. Our dreams are our energy. When they are blocked, we are blocked. Our physical backgrounds can mirror our inner energy. What Flylady has done for me is to open my home to the flow of chi. This week I have not been stopped by dust in the corners, or my usual lament, not enough time to do it all. Flylady suggests taking baby steps and utilizing small increments of time. It works for dishes. And I must ask myself, if zinnias are possible, why not essays? Or books?
This month I invite you to look at how time flows through your life. My momma always said you can tell what a person values by what she gives her time to. We all know when push comes to shove, we make time for the really important elements of our lives. April’s Queens Write about Writing theme is about scheduling the life you were meant to live. Are you creating your dream life? If not, what’s holding you back? Have you created the life you’ve dreamed of, only to discover you’re exhausted? Do you have time to tell us about it? Have you found balance in the life you want and the life your living? If so, we need to know what you are doing. We’ll be publishing essays this month on Dreams and Time…and your dream life doesn’t have to be about writing. Don’t want to write a blog article? Just contact me and I’ll incorporate your comments on the blog.
© Donna Warner, April, 2005 all rights reserved
Flylady’s hints and techniques can be found at
http://flylady.net/index.asp
Queen Jaw JawThe Queen of Experiences
http://www.shoalswoman.com/
http://www.penwomanship.com/
http://www.themonthlyview.com/
Kelly Kirkendoll Shafer (Queen of Step)Founder, Stepfamilies Work!A Place for Stepfamilies to Find Help, Hope and InspirationAuthor, 29 Ways to Make Your Stepfamily Work
http://www.stepfamilieswork.com/
http://www.shafercommunications.com/
Queen Cookie
The Dessert BoxDelectable desserts delivered to your door!
http://www.thedessertbox.com/
Queen Clarissa
http://www.travelingtealady.com/
Donna Warner
http://beinginamerica.blogspot.com/
QueenPower.com
http://www.queenpower.com
disclaimer
posted by Allyn Evans at 3:15 PM
1 Comments:
I found 2007 is the Year of Fire Pig (Boar) in
Chinese astrology.
You can get your luck forecast in Lunar Chinese New Year of Pig
for your Zodiac Animal signs. Chinese horoscopes are
composed with 12 Animals in one calendar cycle:
Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat,
Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.
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