If I had my preference synchronicity would mean buyers showing up at my door out of the blue with a checkbook already out. Instead this week it meant messages from all directions to take pictures and establish patterns of behavior – at least that’s what it meant to me.

• An online video recommended The War of Art (affiliate link)- the third time I’ve seen that book stressed in the last month. On a whim I check the used-book store and they have one copy. The key message of this little book – planning and studying isn’t doing and you have to keep ‘doing’ no matter what.
• A chance check of a local gallery website to see if they still reviewed portfolios for exhibitions (they don’t) alerted me to a new exhibit by my favorite photographer entitled ‘New Work’ opening the very next day. I was curious to see how his work had changed from what I was familiar with. I went but found that only about four photographs out of thirty had been done in the last two years. The bulk of them dating from the mid 1980′s and early ’90s. You have to keep doing.
• Another website I maintain saw a sudden spike in visitors – 11,000% from the previous day. That’s like stepping on the scale and losing ten pounds from the day before. Why the sudden surge? A brief post on odd art from about a month ago that got picked up in a search engine’s suggested topics. Nobody really noticed it when I posted it, but a month later they did. You have to keep doing.

While not glamorous my big accomplishment for the week was getting my taxes done. Otherwise, baby steps in all areas; I ordered the jewelry supplies I need to continue, edited the working files for the Yellowstone essay (book project) and fit in some yard work and the like.

Technorati Tags: synchronicity, thinking isn't doing

It’s funny how a certain message can come at you from many different sources in a short span of time. It’s a synchronicity of sorts although I find that these messages are usually telling me something I’d rather not hear.  The phrase ‘thinking isn’t doing’ has come up in a phone conversation, a book I’m reading, and a few other places this week.  I’m trying to listen!  I’ve started using the task list in Google Mail, not as a permanent solution but as a way to keep track of the myriad things I need to get done this week and next.  It’s everything from jewelry design to digging up the irises so they’re definitely not stored in the same part of the brain.

Another place this hit home was in  reading on writing – being a better and more complete story teller. I find myself feeling like I should be good at that before I start drafting my book project (it’s a delaying tactic that I recognize) but there’s only one way to improve writing skills and that’s by using them.  Luckily there are all kinds of places to put that into practice. Thinking is certainly part of the process but doing is the only way to get there.  I’ve realized that I don’t tend to describe my surroundings very much when I write and yet surely that’s a huge part of the picture, even in non-fiction writing. Of course now I’m self-conscious about it and think that if I do it now, it will seem forced! I’ll sneak some in next week:-)

On the business front I have a meeting with a gallery next week so have been busy figuring out new beach glass jewelry designs.  I have to say it’s an incredible amount of fun to slide frosty pieces of glass around the kitchen table late at night.  They’re like fat puzzle pieces; eventually a few settle out to be the perfect match and arrange themselves into a design.  While I was doing this it started to seem like brown is the underdog glass color  – most people don’t even bother picking it up on the beach.  I’m finding myself feeling like it needs a champion and keep looking for ways to make it the ‘it’ color.  I may just have found it by pairing with clear pink quartz – the one that is the color of strawberry juice.

I’m so glad to be back home and trying to get back into my routine. Although I haven’t yet found the perfect place for my Dad’s alien suspenders (I bought them for him in Roswell.) They were the topic of our last conversation and he was thrilled with how much attention they drew!  His death feels like an elevator door closing; it’s change that requires some adjusting but it also feels okay – you can only hold that elevator door for so long before alarms start going off.

It’s more of the same for the coming week – making jewelry, writing, marketing and tying up loose ends.

Technorati Tags: getting organized, Health and Happiness, solopreneur, synchronicity, taking action, the way to happiness, thinking isn't doing

Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that dealing with my father’s death has  been a lesson in zen, although he was the least zen-inspired person you could hope to find.  He was against any formal services so instead we had an open house; simply opening the door to those who could come.

Yes, I did make about five phone calls to key people to ask them to spread the word and I did clear off the table tops (so there was room for drinks), brought up homemade wine from the basement, and vacuumed, but that was it. Simply because I knew I wasn’t capable of more and because I had no idea how to go about this kind of event. 

Even though I’ve heard the phrase ‘doing by not doing’ and been open to the experience, I’ve never really had a personal example to point to , an a-ha moment until this one; by not doing more, more was received.  Tables were laden with unsolicited food just right for the event and the rooms were full of people that had come from as far as two states away to pay their respects. The flowers that were delivered were just enough to decorate for the party but not make it seem like a funeral home. People arrived early and stayed late and helped out where help was needed while good stories were told. There were no speeches or preaching which was what my father hated the most.

I and others could have planned and slaved for three weeks and not created anything more appropriate. It was an event run on intuition and I can only hope that the valuable lesson will carry forward to other things.

Technorati Tags: doing less, going with the flow, thinking isn't doing