This Week's Rambles: Make Room For Joy!

Dear Perusers:

Arbutus on Malahat Mountain

It will be a week's jumble due to various appointments which have kept me from my keyboard but not thankfully from my pocket camera which goes everywhere with me.

It has become a daily mantra, cellphone, camera, wallet, keys. With these four I can face the world along with A Gigamungous Cup of Bean as well!

Now that Nuvember is pulling his hat from the peg on the wall and is holding the door open about to depart, I have decided to write down some of the things I have learned in dealing with this Month.

First Thought: Nuvember will always be a month of Memory:  a lot bad, some good, so I will continue to allow room for more good memories to pile up in that Bank Vault of Time.

I had thought by joining and in some cases purchasing online creative classes would be a big help. This was not so successful. All the ones I chose for this month had either a due date built in with a goal (like Nanowrimo) or were daily email prompts ie check ins (like !Spark! run by a great group of Cosmic Cowgirls)
My inner spirit rebelled to the point where I invited a guest to stay for a week during the second half of the month.
Since I have left the corporate world and am no longer concerned with time and clocks other than lunch coffee and dinner and the occasional appointment such as airport pickup and dropoff, my creative ebb and flow mirror this and do not in any Way 'fit' the slot assigned to it by these courses.
So what have I learned from all this?
Not to book myself into courses that require word counts, daily shares, checkins or prompts.
The immense wave of 'whoosh'' that came over me when I realized this morning that I no longer HAD to write much less finish That Novel was a sure sign that the La Musa agreed with me.
I Am Constantly Writing either in my head or in my journal or online, so to tack on another Writing assignment for me during This Month of all months was a 'bridge too far.'
Now, with that being said, I do admit, I have gotten further than ever in writing that Novel than I have in years and yes I do need to be encouraged to drag it out every once in a while but not during Nuvember.
Second Thought: Surrounding myself with and photographing Beauty helped. Loads. It was even better and more memorable when I shared it with our guest, who is a photographer as well.
Third Thought: Make my Art Space Sacred and my Self Care Time Sacred as well. Book a facial, pedi or massage. Have my hair style revamped.
I will print these out and put them in next year's calendar as a Reminder to Not Overdo. I think the words here should be 'Thou Shalt Be Gentle On Thyself'.
So to recap: I am thankful for the Nanowrimo experience: I went further than I ever thought I would so Kudos to me for even trying!
The !Spark! Forum is fantastic and would have been sufficient by itself had it not run into my daily commitment to write for Nanowrimo.
(Next year, if inclined, do not try both at same time, one will do)
Continue to get out and shoot daily.
More hands on crafts for Solstice as opposed to bought.
More Self Care.
I think that's enough for next year's Nuvember. I will most likely revisit some of those thoughts and probably add to the list.
In case you were missing it, here are Shots of the Week (so far)

SockMonkey Bolens Books Victoria

2Shot Tuesday: A Court of Quail on the Hill

 Blessings on those in this Hemisphere facing the early darkening days and blessings on those in the Southern Hemiisphere as you go from Spring into Summer.