Lessons in Life through Project 366

It's a new day, it's a new year, and it's a new concept. Last year, my new thing became my Project 366. I was introduced to this idea through social media scrapbook sites and by a fellow scrapbooking friend. The concept involved taking pictures every day of the year and selecting from the group a photo a day. But the project didn't stop there. Not only did I take and select the photos, I had to get them into scrapbook pages. My year's journey is near to wrapping up. I've taken all photos for the year, only missing a few days here and there, and I've digitally scrapped 48 weeks - I only have 4 more to do in order to wrap my project for the year.

2012's experiment taught me lessons in two very important concepts - patience and discipline. The discipline of doing one thing, every day,
every 
single 
day.
It amazes me to think that if I could apply this type of discipline to one other area of my life, what could I accomplish?

Discipline was the master of Project 366. To obey the call of the master, I'd often find myself, dead tired at night and already in bed, being called by the camera to find just one thing to give the day meaning. At those times, I'd crawl through the house, collecting objects and stacking them on the kitchen table to photograph. Those weren't always the best pictures, but they spoke of the practice of discipline. As I look back through my digital pages, they also speak about the routine of our daily lives, something that isn't always captured in our stories.

But if discipline was the master, patience was the much more illusive reward. There were days when the photo of the day came easy - our lives were busy, I remembered the camera, my girls were cooperating, and I'd have numerous great opportunities for getting that one photo to represent the day. Those became the days when patience supplanted discipline, and I earned the reward of the one perfect shot.

In the end, I've created a documentary of sorts - the story of a year in our lives. From the spectacular to the mundane, I've captured images that represent every aspect of the fabric we weave together into this thing we call life.  I'll take the lessons from this year with me as I move forward into the new year. I'll work on honing those lessons and learning new ones. This year, Project 365 (it's not a leap year) will hopefully teach me some new things. And maybe, just maybe, I'll add a new project to inspire and teach me, to engage me and allow me to explore, the story of our lives.

Telling Stories

Telling Stories

Recently, I attended a presentation for work where I learned about a new eLearning development tool called Articulate Storyline.  The presentation made me think about how telling stories is something we are raised with from infancy in the “verbal news of the day.”  And, if we are very lucky, our parents read to us.  We hear tales of great adventures, mystery, or fantasy and our imagination opens up. We think of possibilities and explore outcomes. We learn.

As we get older, stories remain part of our lives.  I remember loving to sit in a quiet corner when my parents had their friends over to play bridge.  I loved listening to the pattern of conversation, as they shared stories about their friends, their work, their families, and about people I’d never heard of. It was through those stories that I learned some things about the world – how it worked, what was valued and what wasn’t, and how people behaved and communicated.

As I watched the story of this software tool unfold, I found myself thinking about how I tell stories. My tool isn’t this one, and my stories don’t necessarily serve the same purpose or convey the same messages. But my stories do preserve memories and capture moments. My stories are told with photographs, words, and observations.  They capture what is important about my life and the life of my family. And they are rich in context, telling the story of how our lives work, what we value and how we communicate.

Ultimately, my stories will become the stories of my children. They will cement their memories, illustrate our values, and become part of the tapestry of their lives. For this I am grateful and for this reason I will continue to tell stories in my way, in my time, and with my tools.

Engaging good luck and opportunity

I've been thinking about vision boards a lot lately.  In a nutshell, the definition of a vision board is a picture you create of the things you want in your life.  Back about 15 years ago, I was really unhappy with where my life was.  I felt I had given up a lot of control over what was happening and hadn't really engaged in making my life what I wanted it to be. So I created my first "vision board."  In this format, my vision board took the form of writing down the things I wanted to be different in my life.  In doing some cleaning recently, I came across the notebook that housed that information.  It is amazing to me how much of what I put into those pages is now true about my life.

The potential for good fortune lies within us, but only if we engage in the opportunity. If we simply wait for things to go our way, we might notice that while some positive things happen, they are not lasting. They tend to pass along without making a huge impact on our lives. Creating our luck, however, takes an entirely different approach, whereby we look at every situation as something that is lucky—an opportunity to do something that allows us to better our lives, rather than constantly feeling stuck in the same place, doing the same things, but expecting different results. (A definition of insanity, for sure!)

Engaging in the opportunity means being brave enough to change things and move ourselves out of the stagnancy of the places where we feel stuck. Stagnancy can be weighty - dragging down what is good in life to sit at the level of that general stagnation. Opening up to the freedom of imaging changes is what a vision board is all about. Then using that freedom to affirm the change is what makes it possible.

Getting it Back

Somewhere, in all the mayhem since September, I lost it.  What is it?  The desire to share, the discipline to take the time to think, reflect and write, the passion to communicate, the will to stick with things.

There are many reasons why. Life has been in upheaval.  September was vacation, school starting, and the beginning of the experience of being a "hockey mom".  October was a month of coping with the unexpected -  being the primary caregiver to both my husband and our three children as the result of my husband falling on the ice and suffering a major concussion that had him hospitalized for a week and recovering for a month, plus.  November was trying to recover from the chaos - attempting to regain my sense of order, my sense of self, and my sense of all the places and roles we need to play. And December--lovely, joyous holiday month--was just more of the need to cope with everything that needed to happen, get done, and take place.

So, we've arrived in the new year - at a place and time where resolutions for change are traditional. So it seems fitting that I would resolve to return to "it".  Return to being in a place and a space where I'm reflective, disciplined, passionate, and full of stick-to-it-ness.  Let this serve as notice that I've got it back and that I've broken the cycle of making up reasons why I can't post anymore because it's been too long, it will be too hard to explain why it has been so long, and the millions of other excuses for not tackling it that have run around in my head since September.

Here's to having IT!

My Word

During the church service on Sunday, our pastor talked about the concept of knowing your "word." As my husband and I saw Eat Pray Love just the previous night, this was not an unknown concept for us. But answering the question itself is difficult, I think. I believe that if questioned, many people who I know haven't settled on their "word."

The idea, according to Liz Gilbert, is of knowing the one word that truly describes you - not what you do, but a word that represents your life, or your life's purpose.  For Liz, she arrived at attraversiamo, or "let's cross over" as her word. It was appropriate, descriptive, and also something that English is not--a single word to describe a complex idea.  English just doesn't do a good job of being concise and encompassing like some other languages.

Like Liz in the book, I think it is hard to not start defining your word in relation to what you do.  She initially thought writer was perhaps her word. But through a long, soul-searching, transformative journey, she was able to really find the right word for her.

I'm still thinking about what my word is.  Some that I have been tossing around include "engagement," "choice," and "discovery." But the still small voice inside is not yet satisfied.  I think I have more work to do before deciding.

I can't wait

In about two weeks, my family and I will be taking a vacation.  It is a trip that has a reason - to go to a wedding - but we have also planned for this to just be some family vacation time.  We have cleared our calendars and designated this as time away.  And I can't wait!

As we started thinking about and planning for this time away, I was at first daunted by the number of days and distance it would take me away - from home, from work, from our normal daily lives.  But when I really sat down to think about it, I realized a sad fact.  I haven't really taken a vacation - time that is completely away and free of work and other life commitments - in eleven years. I realized that meant that I haven't taken this much time for myself, my husband and our family since my husband and I said our "I do's."

What a sad statement that is - to think that a decade has gone by without a true bit of "self"ishness. For to take time where you really commit to not doing anything that relates to your day-to-day life is freeing, refreshing, and rejuvenating. And necessary.

That's not to say that in eleven years I've never had a vacation, it just has never been a time to truly relax and be away.  As I look back on the past years, I realize that all the time off I have taken in that decade plus has been to visit family, have children, and attend other family events.  I remember taking one week for just myself, but it turned out not to be a full time away, as I stayed home and puttered around, unfortunately checking work email too often.

So, this time, I am committing to taking the time - to be with my family, to be in the present moment, to see and enjoy the sights, the sounds, and the scenery.  To really see everything and to enjoy it.  To revel in having no commitments, no deadlines, no alarms and no due dates. To read what I want, when I want.  To make memories. To just relax and have some fun. And maybe I'll come up with some blogs to share about all we are exploring and engaging with.

Let me say it again, I can't wait!

Top 10 things I am thankful for after camping for a weekend

We spent the weekend in a tent, in Iowa, on two of the hottest, most humid days/nights that I can remember.  Here are the top 10 things I am now thankful for because of it:

10. Bug spray.
 9.  Air conditioning.
 8.  Not living near soybean and corn fields with grain dryers.
 7.  Outdoor pools, within walking distance.
 6.  Family, who are camping with you and brought their campers with air conditioning.
 5.  Better bug spray - Deep Woods OFF - with 25% DEET.
 4.  Flush toilets.
 3.  Showers where you can control the water temperature.
 2.  A mattress that allows your feet to hit the ground first.
 1.  Air conditioning (did I say that already?)