Not waiting in vain..

Baby is asleep... do I shower, do I eat, or do I write??
Well, here's the answer, and aren't you glad you're somewhere else?? well, I'll shower later...

I've relaxed into this business plan.. its not going to be completed in a week, maybe not even a month.. but it will be completed as it evolves, as it comes to life, bit by bit. I'm finding inspiration in waiting, not something I've ever been that good at. I have patience yes, but I also have a strong will (control issues?!).. carrying on from my hibernation dreaming, I know that things do, in fact, slow down somewhat at this time of year. Real estate sales always slow down, people don't want to move so much in the dead of winter, and they have less money after the holiday splash out. But as we inch toward spring, things come back to life, energy is reinvigorated and new ideas start flowing.

I've been concerned with authentic living for a few years now, my own mainly, but would like to see the world follow. Authentic meaning, living from your heart, against the grain if need be. I've just read something that made me think about living a 'beautiful' life. Imagine (again..) that your life is an art museum and you are the curator, and its your job to collect beautiful works, perhaps even restore less than cared for works, and share them with the world.. In our lives its not all about material things and outward beauty, but the enjoyment of life which brings out the shining beauty within. Its not just the collection, but rather how it is displayed.

When money is not an issue we can afford to buy beautiful things, but then when things come too easily, we don't learn the lessons that delayed gratification can teach us. And we don't take the time to create the beauty, to carefully restore something with great detail, or appreciate that which we already have.

I have a friend who seems to have good house karma.. she doesn't own her own, but has been the housesitter, watcher, inhabitor of many gorgeous places in the seven or so years that I've known her. She is at 'home' in many places. I always thought of her as having a 'beautiful' life..don't know if she'd agree to that, but I see it as beautiful because there's a sense of grace, and it always seems to provide her with comfort, in that respect. I have been similarly blessed with good housing (a basic need, no?), whether I 'own' it or not. I have not always seen it in that light though. That is probably why these past two years have been an exercise in living with less, or learning what it is that I can live without, and doing it with grace.

In the book Simple Abundance by Sara Ban Breathnach, she says

When you learn what you can live without, you are able to ask life for the very best because you posess the gift of discernment. You develop patience that enables you to wait gracefully and gratefully until the best arrives because you know it will. You are able to create an authentic life for yourself and those you love because you are able to make conscious choices.

That's it for me really.