Happy Harvest Blog
I'm fine; day 3
Not fine, exactly. I fell off a cliff of sorts. (Now I want to draw a picture of a cliff of sorts. Lots of sorts.). Yes, I broke my daily blogging streak shortly after one straight year. I just couldnāt truly convince myself that I had anything worth saying for a whole 24 hrs. Turns out when I do that, people pipe up āHey, is something wrong? You skipped a day!ā (Thanks:) Thatās sweet). I havenāt been doing much but flopping around.
BIRDHOUSE FACTORY
I allowed myself to have a part of a day where I just did something that I just wanted to do, instead of needed to be done (like solar re-wiring, or boundary maintenance). And it was even more glorious than imagined. made three flower boxes, and seven birdhouses, although I didn't get to any decorative ones, just the robust functional ones the birds actually use. They're headed for the garden fence posts, etc. Probably too late for this year's nesters, but who knows. Spring birdhouse maintenance is going to become a day project. I saw a tree swallow!
Habitica has changed my life.
Totally meaningless āpointsā and pixellated tiny āpetsā, yet somehow this is meaningful enough to be life-changing? Yes. Yes it is.Iāve been using Habitica for about three months. In that time I have accomplished things that Iāve failed to for years previous. Here are my examples, big and small.
It's almost Earth Hour!
My favorite earth hour was years ago in B.C. We stood outside in front of our darkened houses and watched the lights around us wink out steadily.
This off-grid life
Off-grid is just the way we live, so I tend not to think about it at all, let alone how it's different.When I am struck by how living off-grid is different, however, is when I'm at someone's else's house, and I turn on the tap, and hot water comes out.There's a reason why ready electricity has become so pervasive it's practically assumed to be a human right:Electricity is damn convenient.
seasonal rhythm
I realized, though, that if one is trapped in a 9-5 life and not outside all day, viscerally connected to the seasons, the shortening days, the building urgency, then one wouldn't be in touch with what this time of year means.
Garbage in bloom
It's almost absurd. All this movement of "trash" is just to satisfy an illusion- that there is a more "appropriate" place for this stuff to be. There is no "away". There is no disposal. Things have been brought into existence on the earth - chemical compounds that do not naturally un-compound, some that are very difficult to destroy and damaging while they exist (say, radioactive waste).
Early observations of Nova Scotia.
Weāve been soaking up our new province as we drive around (so far our opinions of the culture are mostly based on the view from the road). Iām in love with it. Everyone has gardens. Everyone has clotheslines. Nova Scotiaās waste management system is the envy of the world.
It's all about the list
My list has two sections: eight things I intend to do daily, and eleven things that I want to do 1-3x per week. When I execute one, I get to stick one of my fancy glitter stars over the hopeful little grey placeholder. The satisfaction of doing this is all out of proportion.
One week in:
This little journal reminds me now of the 92 year old woman who dropped a pile of day planners like this on my desk and blithely told me sheād kept a journal every day for her whole life. āWell, not when I was very smallā. Each little inch was filled with her tiny handwriting about coffee dates, projects, feelings, moods, successes- everything. An inch can be enough to summarize the main events of a day.
Never was a list so serious
In a spectacular example of the wrong approach, I started the day with cookies, didnāt drink water, and spent nearly a day creating the list of my model Happiness plan. The irony was not lost on me, as I flouted early entries ON the list, like hydrate; wrestled with text in a handwriting font when I could have written it by hand faster; and spent energy on an accessory, at best- creating a list instead of taking actions that were on the list.
Rules, Adages, or Guidelines for Happiness
If a system doesnāt function, change the system. My husband gives me fantastic feedback on whether a system works (like, where things belong). If it works, he puts things back where they āgoā, because thatās the easiest, obvious place to put them. If the system doesnāt work, he finds someplace else to drop them that displeases me, and I know my so-clever system isnāt functional and needs to be adapted.
My Happiness Project
Do something every day, and it becomes who you are. Good or bad. Read, get angry, and write daily, and eventually you are a well-read angry writer......Most motivating is imagining the freedom of being able to have an idea and begin it.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
