Life Lately
There are words below. But those words were written before what happened in Connecticut this morning happened. You can choose to read them if you want, but they're pretty insignificant in light of the day's events. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those affected by today's shooting.
This morning I rose bright and early for the first ever Creative Mornings Pittsburgh, held at the Warhol. I was wary of waking up early on a Friday, but it turned out to be the perfect way to start off the last day before the weekend. I always love being on the North Side in the early morning, there's something so beautiful about how the sun filters through the buildings of downtown. The mornings have been beautiful lately, with rooftops and yards frosted over and sparkling. The cold is biting, but invigorating. I used to dread the onset of winter, but I'm finding that when I go into it with an open mind, reminding myself that the stretch of cold weather really isn't that dramatic, it lessens the feeling of too-short days and too-cold weather.
This week has been a particularly stressful one- preparing for the holidays at work, and generally trying to keep everything together to keep my head from exploding. On top of this, with the worst timing ever the cats had another freak-out earlier this week, and- once again- they're separated. At this point, the end of our lease can't come soon enough, as much as I love our place, this stray cat problem is adding stress on top of stress and I just don't need it. We had made such progress too, they had even started playing together again. I'm interested to know: how do you deal with stress? My first instinct is to stick my head in the sand and ignore my responsibilities- which, let me tell you, isn't a good habit- but I'm making the effort to deal with these roadblocks (speed bumps?) head on, and to quiet my life when needed. Does that make sense? I think it's important to recognize when you just need to take a little time for quiet, to turn off your phone, turn off the lights, meditate. As I practice yoga more regularly, I'm finding that meditation isn't quite as elusive as it used to be. I'm not saying it's easy- it's not- I'm pretty much the worst at quieting my brain and telling myself to slow down.
With this week (mostly) behind me, I'm looking forward to slowing down this weekend and working on some projects. After today's Creative Mornings talk, I'm inspired to create an inspiring workspace at home- to make work a party. We have an office (an office that is also a gym, a yoga room, a place for extraneous stuff, and a cat hang-out), and well, it's not inspiring. It's pretty much the last place I want to be in our home. And I'd like to change that. My project list about a mile long, and I'd love to make a dent in it before the end of the year.