wake up, sleepy head

Hey, hey, hey! (spoken in my best Dwayne-from-What's-Happening voice)

I decided yesterday that I am going to whip our home into shape these last ten days of this month. We've got some residual mess and clutter left over from the holidays (YES! Even though that was almost a month ago) and everyone being home twenty-four hours a day for so many days. Plus we've got lots of places to go and people to see in February and March, so I don't want to feel buried beneath the house so much so that I feel too tethered to go and see for myself. I'm breaking down the tasks into bite-sized workloads these next several days. It's a happening thing. Then we'll be able to move back into some do-able routines for cleaning and maintenance. So there's that.

As far as writing, I decided I would dampen my feet once more in the waters of this ol' blog by doing a series of "10 things" posts while I'm in these days of spanking an unruly house. My friend and fellow "life-writer" (because, really, I don't know what else to call what we do) Brandy has recently done a couple of 10-things posts - here and here - and I really enjoyed them. Reading her lovely writing spurred me on to - finally - write again after so many days away from it. I'm thankful for her writing, for what it says and the pictures it paints, and just it's very existence. She is uniquely her and I am decidedly me, but her's and my writer-hearts beat in time with each other so often. I love that.

Life gets crazy, or even sometimes overly monotonous. Either way, whether from exhaustion or my own defenses or boredom, I can get lulled to sleep in areas of my life. Sometimes I don't know I've dozed off until I hear the sounds or see the sights of somebody else wide awake and moving around. It's been that way for me with writing lately, and a lot of other things if I'm really honest. But in watching someone else take action or do something well there's potential for good things to manifest within me: if I'll let it, it can foster in me the desire and the motivation to do my own good thing in the best way that I can. If I'll let it. It can be an igniting spark to my too-long-just-smoldering fire. If I'll let it.

It's not all inspirational thoughts and motivational speaking around here. This reawakening within me doesn't come without a sense of friction. It's not easy to wake up and realize there have been missed opportunities or chances not taken, or if nothing else, time elapsing. At least for me, even after the waking up there can be even more time wasted on licking the wounds of the time already wasted. It can be hard to watch life happening, dreams being chased, vision being cast, and stuff getting done when I feel frozen in animation. As uncomfortable as it is though, the burn of that friction - if I'll let it - can start to melt the ice I didn't mean to let form and warm the joints I didn't intend to have atrophy. Then, once again, I can get moving. Every day of the week that is better than feeling defeated or depleted by a missed chance, stifled creativity, meaningless distractions, or a trap of comparison.

It's time to wake up, to get up, and go. I'm thankful for the people in my life that remind me of that even when they have no idea I needed the nudge.

And I'm glad to be writing again.

Tomorrow I'll start with 10 things that have happened since last we met here on the blog.