Grace for today

Just for Today

Oh God, give me grace for this day.

Not for a lifetime, nor for the next week, nor

for tomorrow, just for this day.

direct my thoughts and bless them,

Direct my work and bless it.

Direct the things I say and give them blessing, too

Direct and bless everything that I think and speak

and do. So that for this one day, just this one

day, I have the gift of grace that comes from

your presence...

-Marjorie Holmes

Simple Mom Goes Gadgety

If you've read this blog much at all, you know that I'm not a mom, but that I am working to downsize and simplify.

One of my new favorite blogs is the SimpleMom blog.  She's got a lot of insight and reading her blog is like a daily dose of Occam's Razor.  Nice.

Anyway, she's running a contest right now for a SAWEET printer.  Seriously, I want this printer.  I have an epson printer right now and it's pretty jazzy, but THIS one has WIFI.  And it duplexes.  Score.  

I was so excited this morning that I just had to share.  Check out the contest here!

the necklace post

You know how sometimes one tiny simple little change can make a world of difference?

One of the things I inherited from my mom is an affinity for jewelry.  I also inherited her tendency to wear only a few different pieces, despite really really liking just about everything in the jewelry box.

I am a major culprit of 'out of sight, out of mind' -ism and I've been spending some months at home and at work coming up with solutions to help me NOT forget about things.  So as such, my jewelry box, which basically would hide my stuff from me, was not being my friend.

Sometime back when it was cold, I decided I wanted to get a necklace stand to display all my cool metallic stuffs.  I ended up finding this sweet wall-mounted one on etsy, handmade from copper wires.  It's awesome; I just wish that I'd ordered the bigger one!  As it is, it's nearly reached capacity with only about 2/3 of my collection.  The stuff that needs repair, needs cleaning, or is (now) ugly still sits in the box, to be resurrected someday maybe.

And you know how everyone says that you should make an effort, every day, to do some self-care?  Well, for me, I decided that I'd like to look nicer.  I'm not really a great dresser, I would rather sleep than get up early to style my hair, and putting together an entire, complete ensemble has always been a challenge for me.  Just ask my high school friends.

(On second thought, don't.)

But in this whole weird intertwined self-helpy developmental PROCESS I've been going through lately, I began to want to know how to look better -- along with learning how to make my house look better, and finding ways to get my stuff done more reliably and more efficiently.  You know, learning how to get my act together on all fronts.  Self respect, self care, blah  blah.

Enter this one tool, and poof.  Big difference in my appearance AND my psyche.

Celebrate the small stuff, people.  There's way more of the small stuff.

that special place

In a lot of the books and blogs I read about how to downsize your life or declutter, find your bliss, discover your true path, enhance your spirituality, simplify, and/or live creatively, there's an emphasis on setting up your own private space.  This is where you keep the things that help you 'center' - your old typewriter and your fountain pen and your wonderfully scented candle and only your favorite colors and your special journal (in which you are writing every day, of course).  

This is something I've wanted to do for myself for years, but haven't.  I feel stymied - I don't know where to start!  I have a few pieces - the candle for one, and a journal.  I would love an old-fashioned typewriter.  I have the hand-made cedar chest to house my most treasured possessions.  I have the antique desk for if/when I launch a writing career.  (And by the way, is it just me or are half the people on the earth planning to launch a writing career someday?)

I could start reading my Simple Abundance book again - in this, Julia Cameron teaches you how to re-set your mind and operate out of that.  And this would fit nicely with my now-forming habit of getting up a lot earlier in the morning to try to be productive at home before I go be productive at work, since I come home too tired to be significantly productive.

Have you ever been able to establish a place in your home that is solely yours, that feeds your soul and energizes you and rests you at the same time?  How did you get there?  What are some things you've placed there that are significant for you?