Notes from Staycation: Trade confirmed!

The trade for my jewelry tools and supplies has been confirmed. A young artist proposed trading two of her pieces for the set! Delightful! Once we make the exchange I will show off her work.

It's time for me to start reforming myself back into a member of the workforce. Laundry to be folded etc.

This headspace clearing time left me with more questions than answers. At least my morning meeting has been deferred because of a different meeting. Wish me clear eyes and a clear mind.

Notes from Staycation: Homework, Santa Cruz and Cool Jewelry Tools

I spent the afternoon working on the homework Coach Max gave me yesterday. Her method is partially a system of inquiry and partially teaching you to understand your internal physical cues to determine the "rightness" of a situation/direction. Once you learn those cues, you learn what to do with the information you get from them. As a person who spends a fair amount of time in my head, this is a useful approach.

But what a great day for homework! I took my notebook to Verve in Santa Cruz and sat in the sunshine enjoying an espresso as well as the low traffic on Pacific Garden.  Its amazing how the rocket fuel spurs thought! Also, just enjoying being somewhere with nowhere to go was so luxurious.

Part of my assignment was to write down a list of things I was deferring to "later". On the list was to take more walks along the water--there was no way Staycation was going to pass me by without a nice long walk on West Cliff. My physical therapist cleared me for longer, brisker walks yesterday--progress is being made!

You don't get to see how it used to look.

I spent the morning completing the organization of my home office. Part of keeping flow is making sure my space is organized for the things I do all the time. In this room I do my workout, write, meditate and play music (when I make the time that is). Before the space was too cramped and cluttered so I spent most of my time in there feeling pretty distracted--not exactly inspired. Also, gave away some things which brings me to my next topic...

Who wants to be a jeweler?!?

Tools and beads and wires--oh my!

Here is the deal. I want to trade all the materials and tools in this picture for something wonderful. This collection includes lamp worked beads, silver wire, dichroic cabochons, murano gold foil beads, fresh water pearls, a bunch of nifty charms, glass figures and too many other things too list (but can be seen in the photo. Also, the tools have every sort of plier, cutter, mandrel blah blah blah to make far more than bead based jewelry. I can see from the photo there a couple of tools that didn't make it into the frame (an extra set of wire wrapping pliers (excellent quality) and a metal block for shaping silver or other soft metals.

I want to use these things to make a connection with someone who is excited by them and who has a fun and interesting trade to make. You can use these to start a new hobby, expand an existing one, make money from what you create or even start your own Red Paper Clip project

The best part is you don't have to hang onto them--you can trade them again when you are ready for something new in your life. Tools, materials etc...they are only alive when they are in use or circulation. I wanted these to have the joy of life in them again.

The point for me doing this trade is I'm making room to pursue other interests at a deeper level. The jewelry making project served an important purpose when I took it up (and started a love affair with Venice Italy--a lifetime gift). Now its time for someone else to be sparked with magic.

Here are the ground rules:

1. Its all or nothing. I won't break up the collection.

2. We both have to be thrilled with and excited by the trade.

3. We meet in person to do the trade. Yes, I'll meet you half way somewhere. I like going places--what can I say? Also, the point is to make a connection--this should be fun and an opportunity to make friends. I might not be able to accommodate this if you are abroad...write anyway...who knows?

Included along with this are a couple extra surprises for fun. Generosity and sparking inspiration light me up!

If you are interested please leave a comment below. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Notes from Staycation: What's up?

So, I told myself I needed a staycation because my yard needed my personal attention and I was the only person who could do the things that need to happen.

Three hours into the job I was covered in puncture wounds from cutting back my bougainvillea and not making lots of progress. I used executive decision making and decided this work needed someone else to do it for $$$ or other. One hour after that decision was made my older brother called and asked if I needed help with the yard. Synchronicity rules!

What I really needed was a dose of perspective that comes from detaching completely from the daily routine.  For example I sat with a cup of coffee and did nothing but drink it. At least a dozen times I got the urge to get up and "do" something. I just stayed in one place, sipping my coffee, scratching my dog behind the ears and looking out the window.

It weighs 18 lbs!

Another thing I did was actually take time to read a book that showed up minutes before I left for my sister's. I read a great deal for business already but this is more like a business book crossed with an art book. Its simply beautiful...something I easily could have put aside indefinitely waiting for the perfect time to plumb into. As a child I adored large format books. I even had a coffee table edition of the King James bible that I carried to church--it's probably partially responsible for the good upper body strength I still have.

I'm also trying out something new. I just finished an appointment with a personal coach--not one for running but one who helps refine thinking by asking lots of good questions and exploring strategies based on what is uncovered in the inquiry. I engaged a coach because I wanted to vet some ideas with someone outside my personal circle. I've always been intrigued by the concept of personal coaching and wanted to experience it first hand.

Coach Max is a totally cool rockin' queen of the world. I felt immediately at ease with her and able to discuss my ideas in my own way without too much additional explanation. It was impressive how closely she was able to track my train of thought. She also did homework before our session which was refreshing. Check out her blog...I find it inspiring and entertaining.

On the subject of coaching, innovation, creation this quote by Albert Einstein keeps coming up:

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”

So often we are tempted to follow solutions without really understanding the root of whatever it is we are trying to change or improve. At work I'm learning Customer Driven Innovation (CDI) which is a system of inquiry that reveals root cause, tracks where processes become suboptimal (as well as where they peak) and then uses that insight to help drive change/innovation. Coaching is so similar to that...Max was careful to understand my own peaks and valley's before we even began to talk about directions. We spoke of small experiments to try and little changes I could make to see if my compass is facing North.

May you experience penetrating inquiry and be filled with insight!

Notes from Staycation Day 1

About a month ago I realized I needed an enormous dose of perspective so I scheduled a staycation. The need for this was made crystal clear by an uninvited lizard brain attack loss of my filters that I will write about in a separate post. But here's where we are so far...

After I signed off at work I deleted my work email accounts from my phone and iPad and started my plan of Awesome.

First thing, before I left I received my annual review where nice things were said. No revelations but it was a chance to chat with my former manager who validated some of my frustrations. It was nice to connect with him and we had a warm conversation. He is the Red State version of myself--we always have thoughtful, deep conversations where we can put our perspectives on the table fully. I wish we had this kind of cross aisle discourse in congress.

Another nice thing that happened was the opportunity to watch a charitable org one of my programs is coaching. The Valley Verde mission is to help low income families obtain access to organic food by teaching them to garden, setting up gardens for them and being available as coaches and consultants. Additionally, they offer these services to people with the means to pay them full market rate and use that as a vehicle to employ some of their clients. I immediately signed up. My goal this week is to do a thorough clean up of my yard and hire someone to maintain it. This could be my ideal match.

Made a gallon of IPA from a kit. I have made beer in the past but 5 gallons is simply too much beer for me to consume. One gallon gives me the same pleasure of making but the consumable is gone in a reasonable amount of time. It will be ready to drink in a few weeks!

This morning my shipment from Quarterly. I'm an unashamed Tim Ferris fan so I couldn't wait to get his kit. Look at all this crazy awesome stuff! I've always wanted one of these pull saws. Also, the athletic greens is pretty tasty...pineappley. I'm also really enamoured with the pencils...they write in blue.

When I learned about Quarterly I immediately started giving subscriptions as gifts. Its just fun to get stuff in the mail.

Miss Keri and I are about to head out to Morro Bay to see my sister for the weekend--there will be wine drinking, cooking, beach walks and antiquing involved. More later...