Skin and Bruises

As I work on trying to figure out the format and layout of the blog. I still have to get things out. Waiting for perfection is a trap that catches me. And way too often. Right now, the posts are the main drive. And I work from there.

Here are two quotes that I found this week.

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

• Henry David Thoreau

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

• Theodore Roosevelt

About my resetting. Or how I try to set my day each morning.

Morning Pages. But they have not been easy during the winter months. Getting up early is hard in the pitch-black morning. The furnace running signals to me that the bed is a comfortable place to be.  But each morning is a chance to go again. I try to do 3 pages but I am content with a page for the moment. I modified this exercise by keeping my notebook nearby during the day. I try to make a list of my ideas throughout the day. Along with anything that catches my attention like quotes, songs, articles, etc.

• I do not turn on the news in the morning. Unless I need a weather or traffic update before work. Most of the news is about things that I can’t control anyways. And why would I need that daily reminder? And maybe you stop with the news too.

Also, I check out BrainPickings for a morning read. I may print out the article to read on break. It is a good site for curated reading of the works from people of the past. I find more insight and wisdom in reading that has been digested over time. Daily Current News articles I am finding are more about “inciting fear”. And by the way, both and all sides are fully guilty.

• Music is a better way to help make the coffee work in the morning. I stream WFMU’s “Wake-N-Bake”. (From 6:15AM to 7AM) It is an eclectic blend of music.(Just take a look at the playlists on the website) And very different from what I listen to throughout the day. New and different music in the morning helps me to start to tune in with my thoughts for the day ahead. And not be bogged down the same music over and over again. (It is why I hate most of my local music stations.)

“All of our days are numbered. We cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than to not act at all because the worth of the idea never becomes apparent until you do it. Sometimes this idea can be the smallest thing in the world; a little flame that you hunch over and cup with your hand and pray will not be extinguished by all the storm that howls about it. If you can hold on to that flame, great things can be constructed around it; things that are massive and powerful and world changing. All held up by the tiniest of ideas.”

Nick Cave, 20,000 Days on Earth (2014)

I read Outer Order / Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin. It is about decluttering your life and reorganizing your life to fit your needs. I realized that I had a lot of ideas on paper, various projects in various stages, lots of questions, along with a lot of things that I find interesting. All of it. Is just clutter. It is time for me to start dealing with it.

So, as I work to reinvent myself through various “creative methods” across different platforms. I realize that I need a format to do at least a once a week check in with.

In order to….

Get my ideas out there.

Ask the questions I have.

Share lessons I have learned.

Show more of my work.

And to remind myself.

(Process > Product) / Time

If you are reading this blog, you might find something useful. Or you might be able to share something from your own process or experience.

As for my Blog Title Name here.

It is about what I am Putting Out and Showing (the Skin).

And the “Ups and Downs” of the Process (the Bruises).