PERFECTION IS THE ENEMY OF GREATNESS

I am looking for the perfect system, or probably more correctly, perfect systems, to help me run my life. I am constantly working at it and failing. Other people seem to have streamlined lives and tidy houses.

I am a perfectionist. Most people who know me would question this or maybe even laugh. My home is often untidy and I just can't seem to keep up with everything even though I am not working.

The reason for this is that I tend to perfect some areas of my life and don't have time to work on the rest. 

I like order. But I never manage to get everything ordered. My cooking and recipes are ordered. I always know what I'm cooking for dinner everyday - usually at least week ahead. I always shop for groceries with a list. I use a list of old and new recites.That system I have works quite well.

I'm sure there is a system or other suitable systems that I can develop so my life will fall into place. Other people seem to be able to put their daily life together a lot better than I can put mine together. But I never seem to find anything that works long term.

Mayo Oishin in her article,  Why Embracing Imperfection Will Help You Achieve Your Goals Faster.said,'It’s easy to get carried away with the never-ending search for the perfect plan to achieve our goals.'

And Leo Tolstoy said, ' If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.' And I must admit there are times that I despair at the chaos and incompleteness of my house and the uncertainty in my life, and feel that I am never going to get things sorted properly. Then I have to pull myself together and think about what is most important in life and all the good things I have even if it isn't all perfect. I have to tell myself not to give up and keep working on achieving a system that works.

A couple of years ago, before it became so popular, my brother gave me a copy of Marie Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying.  At the time I had a lot of trouble with the 'discarding' part of the process. I can always see something that can be made from something else and have difficulty throwing things away. But I am going to give it another go. She states that if you try to do little bits at a time, you never get to the end. So I am going to plan a day to work on my bedroom first and then other rooms.

I love writing and all sorts of art and craft. I never seem to get around to doing all the things I want. I am always too busy just trying to get tidy.

Jessica Able in her article Creative Compass says in regard to art projects that, 'By breaking giant projects down to tiny next actions (and then ignoring the big picture for a while) you can make concrete progress—without freaking out.'

So my latest plan is to relegate a day a week to organising a room, plus do something creative every day. I have 8 rooms I need to work on. Maybe after a couple of months I can get organised. What I tend to do is move clutter from one room to another. I get small spaces cleaned and decorated perfectly but never everything.

So I have to avoid perfection, move faster and just aim at general order, not very detailed order. Maybe everything won't be perfect but it will give me more satisfaction, and I just have to accept that that is just me.

 In my garden

The lyre bird that visits my deck has been back again. He comes and goes - sometimes disappearing for weeks before he returns again going through his repertoire of bird calls.

Jasper

This past week I have been looking after my daughter's dog Jasper. He is my granddog and I love him.

He loves to lie by the heater.

 And lies on piles of clothing.

He is just totally cute.

I love having him but since I don't have fences it is a bit of a challenge.

Achievements this week

I have done a couple of things this week which I am quite pleased with. They are only small things but things I am pleased with nevertheless.

 I visited someone in hospital who I met through Manna House. (Manna House provides a weekly free dinner for people who may be short of money or just want some company. I volunteer there once a week.) She has an intellectual disability and is having some trouble with a knee replacement. 

The second thing I did was take my wig back to the wig library at Port Kembla Hospital. I had chemotherapy last year and as a result lost my hair. I wore a wig from the wig library for almost a year. It was wonderful. People who didn't know I was having chemotherapy just thought I had changed my hairstyle slightly. It was also wonderful to take it back. 

Poem of the week

I came across this poem, God's Song by Romella Kitchens. I thought it was quite beautiful.
 

God's Song - Poem by Romella Kitchens

God's Harmonic
Melodic.
Song of life sung by God.
Work the rows.

Golden silk of sun light.

God comes...
He laughs and sings with the angels as they all pass through.
He walks in the field of souls.
His harvest is our contentment.
The complete winning over of our beings.
Hear His rolling, sweet voice on the softest air?
How powerful yet gentle are the steps of His merciful feet.
Holy.
Holy.
All is radiant.
All is the figs of abundant profession.
The sprays of joyous green leafs and the cessation
of hunger profound.
We are fed by His tender gleaning.
Race through the fields of mankind and pick
perfect fruit of the spirit.
Song of Praise.
Song of the fulfillment of days.
Golden is the warmth of knowing God...
Golden and with the taste of honey.

Thank you for all those people who try to comment but for some reason the system won't let them. I can't seem to see what is wrong.

Interesting sites

1. Dodgem cars turned into street legal vehicles

Photo source

There are seven of these cars in California. Click here to see more.



2. Ikea and HP want keep plastics out of the ocean

Photo source

 Ikea and Hp have joined a coalition of companies called New Wave Plastics. They aim to include plastic from the ocean into their supply chain. Click here to read more.

LIVING IN THE PRESENT

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

Henry David Thoreau

 With the new year approaching this quote seems worth considering. While we may make time to consider the year ahead it is always worth remembering that we live in the present. This is it. This is our one life now. There is no use thinking 'one day'...Time is limited.


According to Thoreau 'fools stand on the island of opportunities and look toward another land.' In other words we don't realise what we already have. We look 'toward another land' - towards another time in the future when more opportunities will arrive. But we need to seize the present.
 
This doesn't mean we don't plan for the future. In fact we plan now. We keep planning. Intelligent planning is one of the key proponents of productivity, no matter whether we are still in paid employment or not. 

But it is so easy to let life pass us by. For time to just slip by.

As we reflect at the end of the year and consider what we want to accomplish in the next year, we need to look realistically at what is possible. But we need to view the coming year with a 'glass half full' philosophy - appreciate the opportunities that exist for us and seize them. You never know what is going to happen tomorrow.

I realise that I write this for my own enlightenment. I find it so easy to drift through life. In a previous blog post I shared about the 3 times I really had to work to make changes to my life. I am hoping this year I can make a few changes. The main thing I want to achieve that is different this year is to embark on writing a more professional blog - or maybe two.

When Thoreau writes that we must find our 'eternity in each moment' he reminds me of the words of William Blake who wrote four beautiful lines that I love in the beginning of his poem Auguries of Innocence.

 To see the World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour 

It's all about seeing the beauty in what we have - in the small things - in the things that don't cost a lot, and making the most of every opportunity.

In my garden

I came across this green cicada in my garden and was really entranced. I think it had just metamorphosed from its original shell and was flapping around in my coriander seedlings. The black cicadas are most common around my place and I rarely see a green one, but Peter says the green ones were everywhere in Marrickville when he was growing up. 
The common name for this cicada is Green Grocer.

Green cicada in my garden

Green cicada in my garden

Movies at the Botanic Gardens

On Thursday evening, Peter and I went to the Sunset Cinema at Wollongong Botanic Gardens to see Bohemian Rhapsody, a movie based on the life of Freddy Mercury from Queen. It was a lovely evening and we enjoyed the movie.

Before the movie

Bohemian Rapsody

Thank you

Many thanks to those who write comments and those who try. I really appreciate it. For some reason my blog will not allow some readers to leave comments. I will try and remedy this.



Interesting sites

1. Indonesia's first zero-waste restaurant

Photo source

This restaurant is built from recycled materials. Click here to read more.

2. Playing Tetris is good for anxiety 

Photo source

Good old Tetris has been found to help alleviate anxiety.  Click here to read more.



3. You won't be afraid of Australia's deadliest animals

Photo source

If you're really worried about Australia's deadliest animals, your best bet is to give horse riding a miss. Click here to read more.

EMBRACE WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE AND EASTER (April 2017)

Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable. I didn't have to become perfect because I've learned throughout my journey that perfection is the enemy of greatness.

Janelle Monae

I actually haven't followed this advice, to 'embrace what makes you unique' during my life time but I am going to try now. (Poor Peter.........or maybe lucky Peter- who knows where the trip will end.)

I did actually 'embrace what made me unique' at one stage. I like to count things and have them in order. I count all sorts of things - stairs; how many times I stir my coffee;  how many things I have on the clothes line. I love systems and plans - you always have to have a plan. Over the years I have tried to convince my daughters to count things to help keep their lives organised.  You can probably see where I am going with this. As time went on and things got a little difficult for me and I saw some mental health professionals, it actually turned out I have some aspects of OCD - quite a few in fact. Not so much as to interfere terribly with my life, but 'what I embraced as my uniqueness'- the things I saw as making me an interesting person - were not so much interesting as a bit of a problem.

I didn't like maths much at school but I have always been fascinated by numbers. I love to know people's ages. And when I studied psychology, statics  was  like a dream come true. You can take amorphous things such as emotion or feeling and measure them and come up with mathematical results. I wasn't very good at actually doing statistics, but I loved the way you could say something was significant or not significant based on a number.

The first time I studied psychology was at uni, back in the 70's and I was too busy having a good time and then cramming when I had to. It wasn't easy to cram for a statistics exam. There was no point just learning formulae - you had to know how and when to use them. Needless to say I didn't, and my statistics exam in first year psychology was the only time in my life I failed an exam. I passed the overall subject with a credit because I hadn't done too bad a job on assignments during the year - and this was the time before calculators.

When I returned to uni to study more psychology in 1995, everything was on computer, although the internet hadn't quite taken off. I did a research project on teaching syllables to primary school students with reading disabilities. I just couldn't get hold of the statistics program I needed, even though I was prepared to buy it, so my supervisor did the stats for me. So while I am not particularly good at statistics I love the idea of them.

But before you start thinking I must have a very organised life I should tell you that some parts of it are so extremely organised that I just run out of time to organise the rest.

 And as for the idea that 'perfection is the enemy of greatness' I would rather change that to 'perfectionism is the enemy of greatness.'

And that is another whole story.

Easter 

Easter has come and gone, and as important as this time is on the Christian calendar, Peter and I didn't manage to get to a formal Easter service.

We did attend a more informal service at Manna House. Peter and I volunteer on Thursday evenings at a dinner provided at our church for people who are lonely or down on their luck. I stopped volunteering for 2016 as I was tutoring, but I have cut down on that, and am back to Manna House again. 

For the Thursday before Easter the hall was decorated with greenery and candles. 

Easter Sunday saw Peter's family at Wollongong Botanic Gardens, picnicking and hunting for eggs and please note that no family faces have been depicted for privacy reasons.

We set up our picnic under the trees.

There was a beautiful view towards Mount Keira from where we were sitting.

  
This was the basket of eggs waiting to be hidden. Note the interested little hand.

Hunting for eggs.

Grandpa had some bags of Easter goodies for everyone - minus any chocolate but including a book. You can never go wrong with a book, although as Peter's eldest grandchild approaches 8 it will not be so easy to buy age appropriate Easter themed books. Maybe we will just establish a tradition of giving books at Easter.

We did manage to attend church last Sunday night. A cross was lit up on the stage. We actually arrived early for once.

Later in the night the cross became pink.

Ian, the head minister spoke on Romans 12  which talks about the way we should behave as Christians. It was interesting that he talked about pausing before we react when someone wrongs us. I had just been reading the same thing in a book my brother bought me entitled, Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach. This book is written by a psychologist who happens to be Buddhist, and I am not endorsing Buddhism as a religion at all, but I can think of a number of times in my life where pausing before I reacted would have been a good idea.

Climbing on my roof  

Climbing on the roof is a problem for me. It is just too high, but I am determined to do it. My roof leaks and I want to help Peter fix it. So I am determined to make it up there. Each day I have been moving up a step on the ladder and standing until I feel comfortable. 

There is a lovely view from step 7 and I only need to get up onto step 8 to make it onto the roof.

Below is a view with the ladder in the foreground. 

And more views from my back roof.

Craft

Little toadstools in a tiny cup.

Polymer clay toadstools sit on a polymer clay base. I need to soften it with some spagnum moss and little flowers.

I have finally woven in all the ends on my crochet cardigan and am ready to get on with the next part.

I am just hoping I have enough wool as I am making it from an old half knitted jumper.

This is the cardigan I am crocheting.

If you are interested you can find the free pattern here. 
Just remember American instructions are different from British and Australian instructions.

Easter Poem

This poem by Bruce Dawe, a famous Australian poet, is one I can't forget. A little late for Easter, it is written from the point of view of a Roman soldier at the crucifixion. It is so evocative of that awful morning. Yet there is almost a poignant humour to it because of the colloquial language.
 

And a Good Friday Was Had by All


You men there, keep those women back
and God Almighty he laid down
on the crossed timber and Old Silenus
my offsider looked at me as if to say
nice work for soldiers, your mind’s not your own
once you sign that dotted line Ave Caesar
and all that malarkey Imperator Rex
well this Nazarene
didn’t make it any easier
really—not like the ones
who kick up a fuss so you can
do your block and take it out on them
Silenus
held the spikes steady and I let fly
with the sledge-hammer, not looking
on the downswing trying hard not to hear
over the women’s wailing the bones give way
the iron shocking the dumb wood.
Orders is orders, I said after it was over
nothing personal you understand—we had a
drill-sergeant once thought he was God but he wasn’t
a patch on you
then we hauled on the ropes
and he rose in the hot air
like a diver just leaving the springboard, arms spread
so it seemed
over the whole damned creation
over the big men who must have had it in for him
and the curious ones who’ll watch anything if it’s free
with only the usual women caring anywhere
and a blind man in tears.

Bruce Dawe   

                                                                       

Interesting sites

1.

Green roofed hobbit house

Photo source

Click here to read about a green roofed hobbit house you can build in 3 days.


2.

Randomness peaks at age 25

Photo source

'Our ability to avoid patterns is at its greatest in our mid-twenties, writes Andrew Masterson.' Click here to read more. 

3.

 Too clean for our children's health

Photo source

I am currently reading a book about gut bacteria and how over cleaning can have a negative affect.Click here to read an article in the New York Times about how we may be too clean for out children's health.