Dive Deep, Swim Far

Time for an update! Today was my “intro evaluation”, which means that I have now completed not only 3 months of orientation but 3 months of working on my own on the job! I do love my job. Working with the moms and babies has been truly gratifying. In a few weeks, I start training to become a certified lactation (breastfeeding) counselor. At the moment, I am debating whether or not to also start teaching all day Saturday childbirth classes at the hospital. I am a bit reluctant as I don’t want to lose the time to paint and do other things that I’ve fought so hard to get.

At long last, I’ve picked up the oil paints again and have been doing some small sketches to get back into it. Have been doing lots of pen and watercolor sketches as well. In addition, I’ve been spinning and knitting up a storm and really loving having the time to do it. Then there are the stacks and stacks of photos that I’ve been trying to get organized and have started scrap-booking a few of them.

Downsizing my belongings has been much on my mind lately. This move accentuated the fact that I have far too much stuff. After downsizing by roughly 1/3, I still have more than comfortably fits in the apartment, so am working on downsizing still more. After all, how many dishes does someone need who lives alone with 2 cats? I think I have something like 5 sets of dishes, enough to seat well over 30 people at a formal dinner! And then there are the books. I have hundreds if not thousands of books. While I love having them, I have come to the realization that there is a large proportion of them that I have read but never referred to again and so those will go. This will hopefully decrease my “stash” by about ½! I do long to live a simple, less cluttered life and downsizing is but one hurdle on the path to doing so. I’ve also chosen to live without TV and find that I read more, spend more time painting, spinning and knitting as well as more time spent watching the birds and wildife, all things that enhance life for me. I do still watch a lot of movies but even that is decreasing somewhat as I focus on other more productive things.


“Be not the slave of your own past—plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blessings and peace dear friends!

Recommended from my reading and movie watching this month.
Books:
"The Big Beautiful" by Pamela Duncan
"Around the Next Corner" by Elizabeth Wrenn (a schoolmate of mine from Elementary through HS)
Movies:
"Evelyn"
"The Snow Walker"