What is your definition of success?

Success can be packaged in so many different ways and the definition that fits for us today may change in the future. I compiled the list of definitions below to use as an icebreaker for a personal development session many years ago; each definition was printed in large font on a pieces of paper arranged on a large table. Each person was handed a glass pebble as they arrived and told to place it on the paper with the definition that matched their definition of success. I don’t remember which one got the most votes - but I do remember that it was a very effective ice breaker because people interacted with others as they made their choice and then afterward. The other part of the session was somewhat delayed in starting!

1. Work hard, but don’t put blinders on. Don’t be so driven that you lose track of what’s going on. Be open and not single-minded.
2. Happiness with self, in the belief I tried my best to reach my potential
3. Achieving your goal, never giving up, no excuses. Being the best you can be at whatever you choose.
4. The accomplishment of goals: personal and professional.
5. Happiness and making a difference in my field; helping someone else.
6. Personal goals: family and children
7. Ability to get up every morning looking forward to doing what you are doing that week and to be in a position where you are able to earn a living doing something you would do even if you weren’t paid
8. Satisfaction with achievements, feeling of fulfillment. Having fun with what you do every day.
9. Security: emotional, financial, and social.
10. Having no trouble accomplishing goals and financial security
11. Health, wealth, love and the time to enjoy it all
12. Independence to take on challenges as they arise and the ability to walk away when it is not fun anymore
13. Having the life you want and feeling terrific about it. Knowing you are doing it for yourself and not trying to keep up with anyone in society. Joy and fulfillment.
14. You have got to be happy with yourself. Achieve your goals and be comfortable with your achievements.
15. Achieving deserved recognition as leader in your chosen pursuit
16. Being in control of your life
17. Developing tomorrow’s leaders
18. Success is fun, but my family is first in my heart and although the success in mine, my life would be lonely not to share it with my family
19. To be happy with myself and be able to look at yourself in the mirror every morning and every night and be able to say that you’ve done the best that you know how to do.

Quote of the Day - 03/18/2012

Science is one of the great creative achievements of the human mind. The motivations, the satisfactions, the frustrations of the scientist are hardly different in kind from those of any other type of creative personality, however different the products of the creative act may be. - Marston Bates in Man in Nature (Foundations of Modern Biology)

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This quote is from a book written in the early 1960s but its idea is worth considering today.

It points out that we tend to put a narrow lens to our perception of creativity. We think of artists and writers immediately - not scientists and engineers and cooks and parents and….

Creativity is a big part of every profession. Let’s get over the idea that it’s something special that only a few need apply. It is an integral part of each of us.

Science and engineering are disciplines that enable the building up of creative achievements either through collaboration or organization of individual work. In that sense they diverge from the image we sometimes have of an individual artist painting a large canvas. That doesn’t mean that creativity is not involved.

Every one of us brings creativity to everything we do. It is our choice to apply it and we consciously or unconsciously make the decision many times every day of our lives. Creativity is involved when we think or do anything differently than we have before.

Creativity in all its forms needs to be appreciated by each of us and in our culture. It begins with us.

My Desk

I could write anywhere but most times I choose to write at a computer table in my office. It has all the elements that make it a perfect place for me: 

• Equipment. Computer interfaces (two displays, a wireless mouse, a keyboard) comfortably situated. A printer than can be turned on as needed. Task lighting secured to the desk and on an extendable arm; bright light from overhead and a tall floor lamp (rarely on)
• References. A calendar out of the way but within line-of-sight of my chair
• Chair. A Black Swopper Chair that makes it possible for me to move while I’m thinking or reading (i.e. any time I am not writing) and is comfortable enough when I am writing that it is the only chair in the room
• Beautiful views.
  • Behind one monitor - peacock feathers
  • Behind the other monitor - a Georgia O’Keeffe poppy poster
  • Slightly to the right - a window that looks out onto a forest (high enough to look at the middle of trees rather than the ground or the tops). The sheers framing the window have pockets to hold small items that are reminders of favorite people and places. Wind chimes hang from magnets stuck to the mini-blind frame
  • Slightly to the left - a bulletin board and a small (foot high) cloisonné covered folding screen (hiding wires)
  • Behind me - a Georgia O’Keefe prickly pear poster and some metal sculptures with a table below full of family pictures 

 

Summer Wardrobe Planning

We’ve had a few warm days --- and I am looking through clothes to decide if I have what I need for summer. Have you done your summer wardrobe check yet?

Shoes. I quickly realize that the flip flops and sandals I bought near the end of the season last year are still in almost-new condition…so new shoes are not necessary.

Capris/shorts. Last year I enjoyed capris more than shorts. There are more of them in the pile than I remember having…so no purchases needed.

Slacks/jeans. I don’t wear slacks and jeans much in the summer. I do have a pair of linen-like slacks that would be my top choice for summer wear; they should probably stay hanging in the closet year round. Maybe I’ll keep one pair of jeans out as well.

Skirts. I’ve been collecting more of them over the past few years. When it is really hot - they are always my favorite. There are enough skirts.

T-shirts. I have too many. Since I don’t wear them all the time, they tend to last a long time. Some of them are 20 years old! This year I need to focus on wearing T-shirts for working outdoors (with sunscreen to keep my arms and neck from burning) rather than just whatever top I have on at the time.

Tops. I prefer cap or short sleeves to sleeveless and have been collecting some I really like over the past few years. I have some long sleeved big shirts to wear over everything if I’m going to be out in the sun and/or wearing my photo-vest and need fabric between the vest and the back of my neck. Go anywhere tops may be the one area of my wardrobe that needs shoring up a bit for summer.

Swimsuit. It still fits and will work for the few times I need it this summer.

Overall I am in reasonably good shape for summer except for tops. I’m going to make some stops at the local thrift store between now and when it gets really hot!

Quote of the Day - 03/14/2012

To have and bring up kids is to be as immersed in life as one can be, but it does not always follow that one drowns.  A lot of us can swim. – Ursula K. Le Guin as quotes in Frank Barron, Alfonso Montuori and Anthea Barron (editors) in Creators on Creating: Awakening and Cultivating the Imaginative Mind (New Consciousness Reader)

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I really like this quote. The observation about having children and full immersion in life is apt…as is the idea that a lot of us either already know how to swim or discover how to do it before swallowing too much! Motherhood requires the sustained involvement from the whole of ourselves - physically and mentally - perhaps to a greater extent than anything else we will do in our lives.

Recognizing this does not mean that we don’t do other things at the same time. The life we want for ourselves is made from dynamic components, of which motherhood is one. These components enrich each other but can be challenging to blend together without undue friction. Have you thought about the proverb ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ linking the idea of motherhood with creativity? It’s all part of the ‘swim’ that we do!

My experience has been that motherhood has a core that is focused on the needs of the relationship to my daughter and tendrils that extend to every other facet of my life. Those tendrils are overwhelmingly positive - at work, within the community, with my extended family. The ‘immersed in life’ aspect forced me to understand more clearly the meaning of my life as a whole.

Even while focusing on the day to day aspects of children - the hope and optimism about the future is wrapped up in them too; from that perspective, being a mother is one of the most strategic things we do. What else has such long term impact directly on our life and has as high probability of extending past our lifetime?

Yes - children and being ‘immersed in life’ go hand in hand….here’s to enjoying the swim!

Quote of the Day - 03/09/2012

After the printing press was invented in 1436, paper became affordable to nearly everybody. It took on a variety of uses – paper table coverings instead of fabric tablecloths, edgings for shelves, paper dolls, makeshift curtains, even Christmas tree ornaments. The Victorians really immersed themselves in the paper craze. As photography had not yet been invented, they cut out silhouettes of each other that functioned as pictures. Paper doilies became extremely common. - Emilie Barnes in The Twelve Teas of Christmas

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These days - the amount of paper in our house is actually decreasing. We read more books and magazines electronically. Books we only need to read once have been sold or given away. We read news online rather than in a newspaper. There are still lots of catalogs that come in the mail but maybe not quite as many as several years ago; they are the bulk of the recycled paper. We don’t print documents we are working on very often - sometimes they only exist in electronic form.

What about those other uses of paper? Haven’t we all made paper ‘snowflakes’ or cut hearts at valentines? Or folded paper to make an origami swan or geometric shape? For a look at elaborate stories cut in paper - watch the Béatrice Coron: Stories cut from paper TED talk video. 

Doodles

I found a spiral notebook of black paper and some gel pens as I did some house cleaning (spring cleaning is just getting started at our house). The collection had been left behind when my daughter went off to college several years ago. I was surprised that the pens had not dried up completely. I couldn't resist some doodling. 

These were so much fun to do, I think I'll use up the whole book with doodles over the next month or so! In the past I've doodled in situations when I was bored - in a class or meeting. Now, I'm finding I enjoy doodling all on its own.

I'm glad the spiral will keep the doodles in the order that I create them because I think there may be some trends that develop. Stay tuned!

Quote of the Day - 03/06/2012

When I was 6 weeks old my father and mother went to Ireland on business and I went along in a bureau drawer of the old Cunard liner Umbria. - Thomas Barbour in Naturalist at large

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I know my grandmother used a drawer pulled out of the built-ins of her bathroom - padded with a blanket - when a small grandbaby was visiting and I always thought it was a clever idea. The quote from Thomas Barbour reminded me of it.

Would we buy something special for the baby now…even if it would only be needed temporarily? How much ‘stuff’ could we avoid accumulating if we thought of re-purposing what we already have first?

Recipe(s) of the Week: Yellow Veggies

There have been times in my life that I have been challenged to get enough yellow/orange veggies…but not recently. It seems so easy now. Here are my top 10 ways to get at least one serving of yellow veggies every single day: 

1. Pumpkin or sweet potato or carrot muffin (Great any time but my preference is breakfast or mid-morning snack)
2. Pumpkin custard (Skip the crust and just make the custard!)
3. A fall favorite: Select a small pumpkin and bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes. Cut off the top, scoop out the seeds and fibers from the center. Stuff with applesauce and cinnamon…or just dust with cinnamon…replace the top and bake until it is soft. Serve as wedges drizzled with the applesauce stuffing or butter.
4. Raw carrots (The small ones, already prepared, make a great snack or as an colorfu addition to a meal)
5. Cut up carrots into slivers and add to your favorite stir fry or salad
6. Add carrots to a homemade soup.
7. Baked sweet potato (Serve with butter or a drizzle with butter/pecans/maple syrup to turn it into dessert)
8. Baked sweet potato wedges (Peal sweet potato. Put wedges in a ziplock with olive oil and cinnamon to coat with spice…then bake about an hour at 350 degrees F.)
9. Cut an acorn squash in half. Bake cut side down for an hour. Serve with cinnamon and butter.
10. Shred a raw sweat potato in the food processor then use over the course of the next week
    • In stir fry
    • In sweet potato/raisin salad with orange marmalade and olive oil dressing
    • Baked in individual serving portions drizzled with honey and butter at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes
    • As a salad ingredient

Quote of the Day - 03/05/2012

Beautifully illustrated books were prized possessions at the courts of Islamic rulers, and during the 15th century Herat (in modern day northwestern Afghanistan) became the center of book production. - Nicola Barber in Islamic Art & Culture (World Art & Culture)

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It is easy to lose historical perspective in the bombardment of current news. Then a single sentence prompts some quick research. This was such a sentence for me.

Found in a book for late elementary school children, it reminded me of the different perception the west has had of Persia and Afghanistan. Now our perception is of religious fanatics and isolationists - a people that do not want to move toward a future that is like the West. We forget that while knowledge bled away in Europe after Rome fell, the Middle East and Islamic world retained and embellished the legacy so that it was available to filter back as the foundation for the European Renaissance.

Can we develop a vision of the future where the diversity in the world can be a positive element rather than a source of conflict and atrocities?

Quote of the Day - 03/04/2012

So, before the eyes of history has come a nation, from whence is unknown; nor is it known how it scattered and disappeared without a trace. – Nicholas Roerich, 1926 as quoted in Elizabeth Wayland Barber in The Mummies of Urumchi

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We challenge ourselves to learn about a nation from the artifacts they left behind. It is a mystery we set for ourselves to unravel. How like us were they? Were they healthy and long lived or did their bodies wear out very quickly? We overlay our values onto the artifacts and tell their story. It is the best we can do - but not enough. The artifacts are only a snap shot and the hole in our knowledge that implies that ‘it scattered and disappeared without a trace’ means that there is still something we have not found or do not understand.

Knowing there are unknowns means we have the opportunity to be discoverers.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 3, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week: 

• 3 ways to paint with bubbles - You don’t have to be a child to enjoy this activity…and produce some beautiful results
• “Drill, Baby Drill” is a bumper sticker, not a strategy - We need more than drilling to be energy secure
• Windows that double as solar panels - I like the idea of solar panels that can do the job without being a ‘new look’ in the neighborhood
• Discover our shared heritage travel itinerary series - from the National Park Service
• National Cherry Blossom Festival - Washington DC is celebrating 100 years of the gift of trees this year. (picture is from last year)
• An introverted call to action: Susan Cain at TED2012
• Thickest Parts of Arctic Ice Cap Melting Faster - new study from NASA
• New device heralds potential to turn sewage plants into power stations - a proof of concept at this point but a step toward technology helping us to a more sustainable future. It is interesting that this item is from a UK source but the research is from Penn State.
• Creating the Next Conservation Movement…Or Do We Even Need One? - A panel discussion around changing social norms and innovation...innovation may be the faster path toward sustainability.
• Drugs: 'New' Does Not Always Mean 'Better' - The results of a German study...confirms what many of suspected. Now what actions need to be taken since this runs counter to profit motivations?

Achieving a Room of Your Own

Virginia Woolf wrote “A woman must have … a room of her own if she is to write fiction" in her book A Room of One’s Own. It turns out that most people need such a place where they can be entirely themselves and by themselves - whether or not they want to write fiction. We need it for spiritual renewal and deep thinking…to be fully aware of our life…to center and be resilient to the surprises life brings. It is the place for study and contemplation…for planning…for doing things we want to do by ourselves without constant interaction with anyone. It is our own personal cave.

How do you achieve a room of your own? Here are some ideas: 

• Identify space.
  • Optimally, this space is an actual room that is just for you all the time.
  • Next best is a space that can be yours for designated parts of the day - any day that you want it. This could be a corner of your bedroom while your spouse is enjoying their own cave somewhere else in the house. It could be the kitchen table when everyone else in the household is away from home.
  • Another option is a public place where you will be alone even if there are other people around. It doesn’t have to be an actual room to fulfill your ‘room of your own’ requirement. It could be a kiosk in a library, a park bench, your car parked at a scenic overlook, a booth in a diner. It is a ‘virtual room of your own.’ Maybe doing something like this occasionally is worthwhile to give oneself new perspective.
  • Furnish the space in a way that supports what you want to do there. It could be a computer, good lighting, and comfortable office chair. It could be lots of surface area for art projects. It could be a rocker recliner and television. Will you go somewhere else for food or do you want food available in the room?
  • Think about the view from the room.
    • What is it like at night…during the day? I like to have plenty of lighting for at night but generally only have the small desk lamp on rather than all the lights. I like the glow of candles and the shadows in the corners. During the day I like to have a great view from the window visible from where I sit.
    • Items in the room that don’t have function but make it appealing to you are important too. I like glass boxes for paper clips, peacock feathers, and wind chimes hung from the mini-blind frame. On the walls I have Georgia O’Keeffe posters, a white board and some metal sculpture.

Remember - your room will be unique to you. Where it is and what is in it must be tailored to fit perfectly with how you want it be. It doesn’t take a lot of money; it does take thinking about what you need and want.

Living to 100

My favorite longevity calculator is one offered at the Living to 100 website. The reason I like it is that, if you answer honestly, it can guide you to making lifestyle changes that will help you stay healthier and probably live longer too.  If you have recent blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, etc. information for yourself, let the model help you interpret it all.

The first time I used the calculator, I considered it a good baseline and help me prioritize the lifestyle changes I was making. Two years later, I used the calculator again. Although much was the same - two key measurements things had changed: I had lost 20 pounds and the amount of exercise I was getting every week had gone up. The calculator not only calculated more years for me…but also that the quality of those years had a higher probability of being healthy.

I encourage you to use the calculator and decide if some lifestyle tweaks may be worthwhile for you too!

Satisfaction and Joy with Life (Quote of the Day - 2/22/2012)

Life is a little work, a little sleep, a little love and it is all over. – Mary Roberts Rhinehart

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This quote is somewhat like ‘Life is short. Eat dessert first!’ - using the word ‘little’ and ‘short’ to point out the potential of our life being ‘all over’ relatively quickly in the scheme of things. The underlying message is to enjoy your life all along the way rather than thinking to wait for some future time.

In recent years, more and more people have attained the ability to appear ‘always working’ with the advent of mobile devices that enable work to be accomplished virtually anywhere and anytime. Farmers - or anyone that cares for animals as part of their work - have always been in this mode so there was really only a short interval in history when most people could easily distinguish between their work/not work time.

For many of us, our definition of work is evolving. Having a component of satisfaction and joy in our work is more important than ever because time boxed ‘balance’ is often not possible. In other words - work/life balance is no longer a viable strategy. Instead - a dynamic mix of activities make up our life. We can categorize a snapshot of our current activies in various ways if that helps us decide their relative value for us. Here's a quick way to do some analysis using the color coded 2x2 matrixes at the bottom of this post: 

1. Check to make sure you agree with my color coding; make adjustments as needed.
2. Make a list of activities that are taking the majority of your time. Usually the top 10 or so are the ones to focus on.
3. For each activity - look at it from all the perspectives in the 2x2 blocks below and note any that are 'non-green' 
4. Are there activities that have a lot of red? If there are - find a way to stop doing them or to change them in some way to make them more satisfying.
5. Are there activities that have a lot of yellow? Those may be activities to keep but make sure your motivation for continuing is still great enough to overcome their negative aspects.
6. For activities that are 'green' - good for you. These are keepers!

 

Recipe of the Week: Salads without Lettuce

The best part of the salad is usually not the lettuce – so consider salads that have no lettuce at all. Some of my favorites are below and they must be liked by others as well since some of them appear on salad bars in restaurants. They are easy to make at home...and can easily turn into a whole meal! 

• Carrot raisin salad. Grated carrots (use a food processor), crushed pineapple (optional) and raisins. The traditional dressing is mayonnaise and honey but I like orange marmalade or honey with olive oil. A good substitute for the carrot is raw sweet potato. It can be easily grated in a food processor and retains its orange color as well as carrots.
• Green peas and cheese. Frozen green peas (thawed), grated cheese, onions. The traditional dressing is mayonnaise but I like low fat ranch. This can very easily become a brilliant ‘confetti’ salad by adding frozen corn (thawed), small chunks of carrot, and/or diced tomato. To make it a meal, add chunks of ham, chicken, or smoked turkey.
• Three bean. Canned green beans, wax beans, red/black beans with vinaigrette. I tend to always keep a can of three bean salad in my pantry and add to it since the dressing it comes in is more than adequate. My favorite additions are canned lima beans or green peas (purchased frozen, then thawed. To make it a meal – try adding chunks of smoked turkey or bacon.
• Cucumber and yogurt. Chopped cucumber, yogurt, garlic, basil, onion flakes. Best if mixed together and left to stand for 10 minutes or so. This can also be processed into a smoothie - ‘salad in a glass.’
• Cucumber and tomato. Chopped cucumber, diced tomatoes and onions (or onion flakes) in vinaigrette.
• Left over potato salad. Left over baked potato with skin (chopped with kitchen scissors), hardboiled egg  (chopped), small amount celery with mayonnaise. I usually substitute low fat ranch for the mayonnaise. Add bacon bits to make it a meal.
• Celery and peanut butter. Clean and cut stalks of celery into manageable lengths. Put glob of peanut butter in ramekin and use as a dip!
• Finger salad. Cut up your favorite veggies (lots to pick from: celery, cauliflower, broccoli, turnip, carrots, tomatoes, peppers). Put dressing (low fat ranch is my favorite) in a ramekin and use as a dip.
• Spaghetti squash salad. Rather than pasta salad - try using leftover spaghetti squash instead. Green onions, diced tomatoes, frozen peas…it doesn’t take much to make this a colorful salad. One time I went with all green additions - green onions, frozen peas, celery, and parsley! I like to use a generous amount of a no-salt seasoning blend particularly if the squash does not have very much flavor itself (sometimes it does…and sometimes it doesn’t). A vinaigrette or orange marmalade/olive oil dressing is good although plain yogurt makes a good dressing too. To add some protein - pecans is what I usually pick. If the squash is a bit watery, I add chia seeds to the salad. They’ll make whatever extra water there is into a gel in about 10-15 minutes. 

The list could go on and on….and I haven’t even started with the fruit salads yet! I’ll save those for later blog.

What are your favorite salads without lettuce?

Quote of the Day - 2/19/2012

No one can observe and analyze beautiful things in nature or works of art without increasing his capacity to appreciate and therefore enjoy the best. - Henry Turner Bailey in Photography and fine art

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The quote today is from a book published in 1918 - just as photography was gaining wider popularity. It seems logical to me that having the discipline to notice beautiful things in our everyday activities does indeed increase our ‘capacity to appreciate and enjoy the best.’ I was given a new camera for Christmas 2010 and used it as a springboard to dramatically increase my forays into botanical photography (and photography in general). Now I find that I ‘see’ more than I did a year ago….and enjoy the challenge of capturing what I find.

Henry Turner Bailey was Dean of the Cleveland School of Art when he wrote the book. My favorite images are of things I recognize like the Jack-in-the-Pulpit on page 30 (small version at left) and the dogwoods on page 31.

Note: I’ve provided links to the hardcopy version of this book on Amazon but it is freely available on the Internet Archive to enjoy on line: Photography and Fine Art.

Personal Rhythms - Annual

This blog item is the fourth in a series about the rhythms we choose for our lives. Today the topic is annual rhythms.

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What activities do you do every year? I find that putting these on a calendar (either electronic or paper) is very worthwhile - so that I don’t forget. I’ve listed some examples below.

• Birthdays/anniversaries/other yearly celebrations. I set up a re-occurring item on my electronic calendar for these.
• Vacation. Taking at least a week off to do something completely different than the other weeks of the year helps sustain your focus on what is truly important in your life. Generally I reserve the days on my calendar well before I know for certain what I am going to do.
• Physical/medical checkup. Most medical plans encourage some kind of annual checkup. Use the data to make appropriate life style changes (and minimize medication over the long term).
• Thorough house cleaning. Many people still do ‘spring cleaning’ because it works to keep the home in great shape. Some elements of thorough house cleaning (that aren’t part of weekly or monthly cleanings) might be:
  • Cleaning windows inside and out
  • Taking everything out of a storage area, cleaning it, putting back only what is still needed, donating/trashing the rest
  • Getting all the spiderwebs and debris from the garage floor and ceiling
  • Cleaning under furniture (may involve moving the furniture)
  • Checking the pantry for old/forgotten/expired cans or boxes of food
  • Emptying the refrigerator, cleaning the shelves (hopefully not finding any long lost items that should have been eaten or thrown away long ago)
• Resolutions. Most people do this at the beginning of the year but it can be done any time. The idea is to set some longer term goals…and the ways you will measure them for the next 12 months.

 Are there other things that should be added to this list for annual consideration?

~~~~~

Previous posts in this series about personal rhythms can be found here: monthly, weekly, daily.

Personal Rhythms - Monthly

This blog item is the third in a series about the rhythms we choose for our lives. Today the topic is monthly rhythms.

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There are activities that are generally done on a monthly basis. For me, monthly activities clump into two main areas: keeping the household running smoothly and personal metrics. I’ve listed some examples in each area below.

Keeping the household running smoothly

• Bill paying. Usually credit card, utility, and mortgage payment are a monthly rhythm. It is one that causes a lot of fuss and flurry if not done consistently on time.
• Non-perishable household items. Making one major shopping trip a month for non-perishable household items can save money and make the other shopping trips easier. For me, this has taken some getting used to; it took me awhile to realize how much cat food was needed to sustain 2 cats for a month!

Personal metrics - These are tightly linked to personal goals. For me, most metrics are collected daily (things like: weight, blood pressure, books read, blog items posted, time spent in whatever area I’m trying to improve, etc.) and analyzed weekly. On a monthly basis, I look at the overall goals I have for the year and decide if the metrics are still the right things to be measuring…and does the data tell me that I am on track to achieving the 2012 goal I set for myself.

Think about the monthly rhythms most important to enable your life to move along the way you want. Are they firmly in place or ad hoc? Could they be honed to better meet your needs?

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Previous posts in this series about personal rhythms can be found here: weekly, daily.

Quote of the Day - 2/15/2012

Colette once remarked that she always wanted to see her rooms crowded with flowers and her kitchen table set with whatever seasonal delights the farmers’ stalls had to offer: baskets of spotted quail eggs, yellow, noisy skinned onions, tied bunches of perfect leeks, succulent red berries. She wanted to smell the reassuring odors of good food cooking. And she always wanted her windows, their sills filled with pots of herbs and sweet geranium, to open out into the embrace of tree branches. These things gave her a sense of peacefulness. - Lee Bailey in Lee Bailey's Country Weekends  

~~~~~

Recently - I seem to be focused on reducing clutter. The quote for today reminds me that some kinds of clutter are an element of a comfortable home. Today, let’s focus on positive clutter.

Colette’s flowers…seasonal delights…pots of herbs - those all are appealing.

For me, positive clutter is functional (and used often) or changes frequently. Here are some examples of positive clutter I have around me:

• Handy containers for colored paperclips anywhere I may sit down with a book. I use the them to mark interesting passages and my place in books.

• Little pieces of paper around my PC with numbers or reminders. They last for a day or two then are replaced by others. I like to use different colors and sizes. It makes the work area seem more personalized.

• A wire basket with banana rack with onions, potatoes, garlic, bananas….any fruit or veggie that does not need refrigeration.

• The variety of small canisters of tea on the shelf over the sink. We make a pot of tea every day so the contents of the canisters are always being depleted….refilled.

• A deep red metal bowl filled with small containers of daily vitamins/supplements. It holds 3-5 days so sometimes it is piled high and other times it is down to one small container.

• A stack of magazines/catalogs on the table - ready to be thumbed through and then recycled.

• A pile of books to glean for quotes (taking out the paper clips as I glean) and return to the library (for library books) or donate to a used book charity…unless I am keeping them for reference.

• A 40+ year old sewing basket next to one of my reading chairs. I do my mending there - but mending is not needed all that often. I’ve recently decided it is the best place to leave my Kindle to charge. So the sewing basket was always a positive clutter…but it recently increased its positive value.