More Ponderings

What I've observed is that no matter how much things seem to stay the same they are really forever changing. "I" am forever changing. I am slightly different today than I was yesterday or, perhaps, even an hour ago.
A single thought; a comment by a friend; a passage read in an article, book, blog or post; even the words to a song you've heard a hundred times may bring an insight or change a point of view.

The wisest of us communicate. If there is an upset, a disagreement or such we find out if we misunderstood or where it all started and what started it. Many marriages or friendships could be saved that way. There is nothing more ignorant than someone who proudly declaims "if you wrong me then I'll never speak to you again!". That attitude makes imagined slights or wrongs solid. There can be no chance to find out anything or correct anything. The loss is mostly to the person with the attitude. Those who communicate just shrug shoulders and go on to wiser friends.

Recently I've observed that some things are best noticed by their absence. Most of you know that I am now part of the household of my Sis and her wonderful husband, Chip. We are three. It is rather incredible! The thing that is absent is loneliness. I was actually doing quite well living on my own after JD passed. I wasn't really aware of how lonely I had become until I moved here. Sis tells me the same. Chip is gone more than he's home and she said she'd been retreating into her "live alone" shell again until I came. We're both different now.

I won't say that we're big-time run around folks but we do get out and do. We also stay IN and DO. Because we have each other we are more interested in life.

Another thing that becomes more apparent in its absence is a barrier to something. For several weeks we had no access to the building that is to be my studio. Wind had broken the door and we couldn't get in. Chip has the skills to fix it but not the time!!!

Just last week a customer introduced me to his carpenters and now there is a working door done just as I wanted (big double door with a one person door built in) and the insulation and wall board are going up inside rapidly. I will be paying for it but for now Sis is fronting the money.

The studio will have a doggie home in one corner with a door to the outside giving them free in and out access, heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. It will have a hinged lid that lets me clean it easily! And it also will have an inside screened door that will let them in when the work I'm doing is safe for them. I'm looking forward to spending more time as I miss having my babies near me. They miss it too.

With the dog room built we get the garage back. That open door (its a security door and we can't put a dog door in it) has let in all kinds of dirt and mess. The dog's things and the dogs themselves keep us from putting things in the garage that need to be there.

Having the studio done also lets us move things from the big storage building we built (which is so full we can't find anything!!!) into the studio making room to sort through what is in there. It will free up space so we can rearrange our house, moving my furniture into my room, storing away the furniture that is there now while we wait for garage sale season to sell the items we no longer need.

It is fabulous what breaking down that ONE barrier has freed us to do! I will soon find the small things that I no longer need and can sell on Etsy/Facebook or give away on Listia. I can find my coats! We can clean the garage, bring in my shelves that will help us "order" the office! I can set up my work spaces and actually carve again. I can access my other supplies without having to dig out and put back every time I need to make something.

Breaking that barrier makes all our lives better. I can make more money to pay off the costs of the building too. I can actually start taking advantage of the markets here now that I can access the materials and have a space to complete orders and stock.

There are even more freedoms we gain by adding space. Actually there are even more than I have time to itemize. Thus the removal of that ONE barrier causes so many other barriers to fall.

I am closing my website, which has done nothing at all for sales. It is just a money drain, albeit not a huge one. I will be marketing via Etsy and Facebook; the Beauty Salon which is selling my jewelry amazingly well for such a small place; and I can develop other markets locally. I've also got two new or relatively new friends with whom to do shows and events (I can't physically handle them well alone any more).

I hope that my personal insights help you to find some positive changes you can make for yourselves. That, after all, is the point of this blog!!!