Bumbling
After four months in my new home I am beginning to find my rhythm. There are the months after a move of finding where all your belongings fall into place, a little like water finding its own level. And if this seems like a long time to adjust, I add there are extenuating circumstances: my natural ability to putz. There’s nothing I like more. I don’t pay any attention to it usually, but a recent visit from a friend brought my talents for ‘getting a late start’ into sharp focus. I can find any number of things to do before I get down to work or before I can leave the house: checking my email one last time, finishing up a game of solitaire, putting a pillow straight, having one last cup of coffee before the day begins. I discovered this demands a great deal of patience on the part of those who wake early and are immediately ready for the day’s projects, like my houseguest.
Thank god I don’t work in an office anymore. The one constant complaint from each and every one of my employers was my showing up late, as if there were something inherently valuable in being at a particular place at an arbitrary time, a failure on my part to understand the difference between 9 and 9:20 telescoped into a staff morale issue.
So, while others are setting goals and making lists for their accomplishments in the new year, I bumble along doing a little of this and a little of that. The only harm has been to my attention span, which is about 10 minutes before I’m distracted and get up from my desk, or my work table where I paint, answering the irresistable urge to straighten the books stacked on my coffee table, or reorganize my brushes, or jot down an idea for a website.
But once in awhile, inspiration strikes and, when it does, I can work for hours and hours on one thing. Yesterday was such a day. I spent the day painting, working on a series of works on wood panels. When this happens it’s like a fall into a sort of coma of deep concentration. After such days I sleep well and wake the next morning looking foward to seeing what I created the day before. Are the paintings as good or as bad as I remember them when I quit for the day? I wake up resolved to do better.
