In Life It Is Important To Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”  

Stephen Covey

I have spent most of my life doing a myriad of things and not doing any of them particularly well. I love all sorts of art amd craft. I love writing. I love cooking. I love gardening. I start a lot of things and never finish them.


I spent a lot of my adult years wondering why it was so hard for me to get  some things done. If it wasn't something I was particularly interested in, like housework, it seemed to take me for ever and just never seemed to get finished. Other people seemed to have immaculate houses and no matter what I did I just couldn't seem achieve it. When I was 40 I saw a psychiatrist and I began to understand why I had such a problem. I suffer from adult ADHD without so much of the hyperactivity (unfortunately. I would like a bit more 'get up and go'). I now take medication for adult attention deficit disorder.


Over the years I have created all sorts of systems to try and get things done and still believe one day I will find the right system and things will fall into place.

I have been trying to follow Stehen Covey's suggestion and choose the main things in areas of my life and work on getting these done this week.



Writing
I have been writing for Medium so I plan to write one article at a time and not bits of many.

Gardening
This week in the garden I will plant seeds for coriander in my herb patch.

House Cleaning
My hall is a bit of a dumping ground for all sorts of things so this week I plan to make it immaculate.


One thing I have found is that I need to write things down and stick to working on these - not get sidetracked.  Writing things down and crossing them off helps me organise things.

Of course the really important things in my life are my Christian faith, my partner, and my family.  They always take precedence. But after that I will just aim at these 3 things in the next couple of days and anything else is a bonus.

                                                               ...🌝🌝🌝...


A new granddaughter.

There is a beautiful, new granddaughter in our lives. Genevieve Rose. She is 8 weeks old and just starting to put on weight. She is grandchild number 8 and granddaughter number 7.

Tulips at Bowral

We visited the tulips on the mountain at Bowral which is located a 90-minute drive southwest of Sydney. The annual Tulip Time festival features over 75,000 tulips planted throughout Bowral's Corbett Gardens and the surrounding Shire. 

We took Mum and had a very enjoyable day.

My Sydney Rock Orchids 

My own Sydney Rock Orchids in my front garden have been putting on a beautiful display. It is a pity they don't flower for longer.

They get absolutely not attention. The other day when i was gardening I fell over right in the middle of them so I am hoping they are not damaged.


The lake

As we took our morning walk around Lake Illawarra we came across this flock of Little Pied Cormorants slowly making its way around the edge of the lake.

 

Rhiannon's art prize

My very talented daughter Rhiannon recently won first prize for $1000 at an art exhibition at the Polish Association in Keiraville, Wollongong.

 

Her work was painted with acrylics on canvas and is entitled Decomposers. We are very proud of her.

Interesting sites


1. Strange collages of buildings

Photo source

 Click here to see the strange collages of Matthais Jung.


2.  The environment effects why some people succeed

Photo source

The environment effects why so few people succeed and others don't. Click here to read why.


3. Esther the Wonder Pig beats cancer

Photo source

Click here to read a great story about Esther the Wonder Pig.

 

GOOD FOOD - THE FOUNDATION OF GOOD HEALTH

Since I love to eat, and consider food part of my "medicine" to keep me healthy, I budget higher food prices into my (very modest) budget. Produce is unquestionably the foundation of good health. When you enjoy delicious fruits and veggies because they taste great, then you will keep eating them. That's why taste matters.

  Starre Vartan

 

The quote above mirrors my experience. I have a modest income but most of it goes on fresh fruit and vegetables. I make all our meals from scratch, so as not to rely on chemical additives. 

 

Every Friday I visit the fruit market. We make a day of it. I take my mother and daughter, and Peter usually comes along for the ride. We travel a few suburbs to find the fruit market of choice - the Leisure Coast Fruit Market and Deli at Fairy Meadow.

 My weekly buy always includes sweet potato, cauliflower, lettuce, rocket and mushrooms and then whatever else I need for that week such as carrots, onions etc.

 

The truth is we don't know if cancer and other types of digestive diseases and health problems are connected to the array of additives and chemicals present in so many processed foods. (We do know that nitrates in processed meats are carcinogenic.) Since I had cancer recently I prefer to take a precautionary approach. 

 

Fruit and vegetables are the basis of good health. I love to eat and try new recipes. I like to buy good quality produce because it tastes better. I like to make all my meals from scratch so I know what is in them without the artificial colourings, flavourings, extra sugar and additives to give something a longer shelf life.

 

I have read various opinions about eating organic produce. At this stage I have avoided the extra cost as I am on a limited budget, and they are not available at my fruitmarket.  But this may change.

 

I lost 6 kilograms before Christmas. I managed to put it all back on again over Christmas when I stopped sticking to my Plant Paradox regime. I am back on my eating plan and gradually losing weight again.

 

This style of eating is based on promoting healthy gut bacteria and reducing inflammation. I saw Kelly Clarkson on TV explaining that she had lost a lot of weight following the Plant Paradox program so I decided to give it a try. Unlike other diets I have been on, there is no calorie counting which is great, although there are quite a few restrictions. But it is all healthy eating.

 

I plan to start a new blog based on the Plant Paradox program, providing recipes that I have tried, are budget friendly and have ingredients available in Australia. I'd like to try some of my recipes on this blog first. Maybe I could get some feedback.

 

A granddaughter's christening

(Please note that faces are not shown to protect privacy.)

Our little granddaughter was christened on the weekend. It was held in Helensburgh Catholic church.

 

The baby slept through the service, and barely stirred when she had water poured on her head.

Peter's daughter Megg made a beautiful carrot cake which was cut and shared at morning tea.

A walk by the lake

Peter and I took a walk by Lake Illawarra. The white spots are pelicans. There must have been fish out there. 

Another photo of a dandelion on Peter's front lawn. 

I just couldn't resist it.

Article in Medium

 

Photo source

I have written an article for Medium, Do You Feel Like Giving Up? Read This Now.

Interesting sites 

 

1.  Beautiful hiking cabin in Norway

Photo source

 

This cabin was made with 77 panels. Click here to read more. 

 

2. Why don't birds' feet freeze?

 

Photo source

 Birds' feet don't freeze in winter. Click here to read why.

3. This 'king' once ruled Antarctica

Photo source

This king once ruled the green, lush forests of Antarctica. Click here to read more.

THE IVY LEE METHOD

Falling in love with starting is easy. Falling in love with finishing is hard. But, if you can learn to fall in love with the art of finishing—and the process of overcoming adversity, failures and working around obstacles—you’ll consistently follow through on your ideas.

  Mayo Oshin

When I read this quote I thought, "That's me!" I am not good at finishing things - household chores, crafts -  all sorts of things.I start things and do part of them really well and then get sick of things or forget about them. I am super organized in some areas such as my recipe collections and laundering clothes. Then I am completely disorganized in other areas such as actually getting the clean laundry into cupboards - and there is only me in the house!


I have mentioned before that I am looking for the  optimal   system for getting things done and finished. I just don't get the things done each day that I plan. I have tried various systems including the Bullet Journal System which many people swear by, but just made me very anxious.

In my recent reading and search for helpful tips on being productive, I came across Ivy Lee. He was a highly respected productivity expert and pioneer in the field of public relations at the beginning of the twentieth century.

He had a notable system for getting things done, which he shared with various industries. It was a simple daily routine for achieving peak productivity.
 

1. At the end of each work day, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks.
2. Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance.
3. When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.
4. Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.
5. Repeat this process every working day.

In a nutshell this system appears to work because it is simple; it imposes limits on what has to be done; you know where you are going to start for the day; and it requires single tasking rather than multi-tasking.

I have given it a try and found it quite successful. The secret is to still break tasks down into small pieces and don't make each of the  6 things to be done too broad.

Bonsai trees

This past week has been very quiet. I did some gardening.

I am making a collection of bonsai trees. I take them from the garden when they are very small.

So far I have 2 native Bleeding Heart trees ( Homalanthus populifolius)  and one I think is some type of acacia.

 By the lake

On Saturday Peter and I went for a walk by Lake Illawarra. I can never go past a dandelion ready to blow.

And I'm not sure what this flower below is but it seems to be in bloom most of the year and is very striking

After much searching I decided that it was probably the beginnings of a coral tree of some type.

Fear of the Inexplicable
by Ranier Maria Rilke

But fear of the inexplicable has not alone impoverished
the existence of the individual; the relationship between
one human being and another has also been cramped by it,
as though it had been lifted out of the riverbed of
endless possibilities and set down in a fallow spot on the
bank, to which nothing happens. For it is not inertia alone
that is responsible for human relationships repeating
themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and
unrenewed: it is shyness before any sort of new, unforeseeable
experience with which one does not think oneself able to cope.

But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes
nothing, not even the most enigmatical, will live the relation
to another as something alive and will himself draw exhaustively
from his own existence. For if we think of this existence of
the individual as a larger or smaller room, it appears evident
that most people learn to know only a corner of their room, a
place by the window, a strip of floor on which they walk up and
down. Thus they have a certain security. And yet that dangerous
insecurity is so much more human which drives the prisoners in
Poe’s stories to feel out the shapes of their horrible dungeons
and not be strangers to the unspeakable terror of their abode.

We, however, are not prisoners. No traps or snares are set about
us, and there is nothing which should intimidate or worry us.
We are set down in life as in the element to which we best
correspond, and over and above this we have through thousands of
years of accommodation become so like this life, that when we
hold still we are, through a happy mimicry, scarcely to be
distinguished from all that surrounds us. We have no reason to
mistrust our world, for it is not against us. Has it terrors,
they are our terrors; has it abysses, those abysses belong to us;
are dangers at hand, we must try to love them. And if only we
arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us
that we must always hold to the difficult, then that which now
still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust
and find most faithful. How should we be able to forget those
ancient myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into
princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps
everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless
that wants help from us.

Interesting sites

1. Bubble domes in the Irish woods

Photo source

Scattered throughout a woodland resort in Northern Ireland, these bubble domes provide an unforgettable glamping experience. Click here to read more.



2. Dementia linked to lifestyle

Photo source

Dementia seems to be affected by lifestyle. Click here to read more.


3. Why the forest gives you awe

Photo source

 Why do we feel awe in a forest? Click here to find out.

SOME THOUGHTS ON HAPPINESS

“Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.” 

 Aldous Huxley

Chance photo taken in my garden

I love quotes. They can be gems. Wisdom in a nutshell. They make me think, and as I come across quotes that are relevant or interesting I save them for my blog. I have read that people who read blogs don't want to have to think, but I am sure this can't be true.

As the New Year starts it seems timely to think about happiness. 

 I try to find happiness in the small things. A cup of coffee or spotting a toadstool can spark happiness. Snuggling under a warm quilt or watching the waves. Financial necessity makes my life 'small', but it is still happy because I consciously set out to enjoy and be grateful for the small things.

Daniel Kaheneman, a cognitive psychologist, winner of the 2002 Nobel prize for Economics, argues that we are more concerned with satisfaction than happiness which is only fleeting. He contends that happiness and satisfaction are  2 different things.

He spent years studying happiness, yet now he considers satisfaction and life satisfaction of greater importance to people. In his podcast Conversations with Tyler (19/12/2018) he states that people want to maximise their satisfaction rather than their happiness. For example in his research Kaheneman found that spending time with friends scored highly for making people happy. Yet these same people did not make socialising a priority, rather they undertook activities which may not bring immediate happiness but would bring satisfaction in the long term, such as working on a career.


Paul Dolan, Professor of Behavioural Sciences at London School of Economics is an expert on the measurement of happiness. He states that, 'Happiness is situated in what we do and who we spend time with. It does not reside in some story we think should make us happy.' In his book Happiness By Design (2014) he writes that 'the stories about how we ought to live our lives' can hurt us as much as they may help. So we shouldn't compare ourselves to others. We must find happiness within our own limits and in our own way.

In his article, 'Why the Quickest Route to Happiness May be to Do Nothing', David Robson wrote, ' Happiness really is like a timid animal. And once you stop chasing it, you might just find that it naturally appears of its own accord.' 


Dragon boats on the lake

Peter and I like to walk along Lake Illawarra and spotted these dragon boats on Tuesday morning.

Dragon boats in the distance

In the garden

I found this clump toadstools on my neighbour's footpath. I love toadstools so had to include this photo. Toadstools make me happy.

Toadstools on my neighbour's footpath

I came across an article on the internet about mint and using it to keep insects, spiders and mice away. So I did some more research and it seems that this does in fact seem to be the case. One of the things I am not short of is mint. I have a whole garden of it.

My mint garden

Some of the leaves are gigantic.

Gigantic mint leaves in my garden

So I have started putting vases of mint around my house to keep the critters away. 

Jar of mint in kitchen

Mint on my coffee table

My hope is that the mint will grow in the water and I won't have to replace it. The only problem is that something is eating my mint and I can't seem to see what it is.

I don't have any rodents in my house at the moment but I do have the occasional cockroach. So I am hoping they will all disappear. I will let you know how it goes.


Axis Mundi

Below is a poem I love. It represents why I write my blog. It's all about the small things. The things that don't cost much. The things we need to stop and appreciate. Beautiful things, that can just slip by if we don't take the time to notice.

This poem sits well with the quote above at the beginning of this post. "Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities," but we have to take the time to 'see' that happiness. 

Read and enjoy.


AXIS MUNDI

The point at which heaven and earth meet.
There are other definitions. But think about this one. 
Better yet, think of it this way:
"A" point at which heaven and earth meet.
There is a point at the base of a baby's neck where heaven meets
earth.
And, certainly,
when fall moves into winter,
in the late afternoon light filtering through not-quite-bare
branches,
there is a certain shimmering essence that nearly breaks the 
heart.
Consider the point at which,
lying on your back,
you look up into a blue sky and, in a moment of grace, imagine a
worthwhile tomorrow.
Or when an unexpected wind sweeps around a corner and brings
with it a hint of some distant unknown sea
Maroon and gray and gold strata on a rocky headland
above a green-gray sea.
Tea in a special cup.
Points at which heaven and earth meet.
A string of points, connected, make a line.
A line can be followed, to a destination,
can draw us in.
Axis mundi.

Dianne Crumbaker



Interesting sites


1. Entire Swiss village to become hotel.

Photo source

This old village in Switzerland is being saved from decay by being turned into a hotel. Click here to read more.




2. Why your brain is wired for pessimism.

About 25 years ago I read a book by Martin Seligman titled 'Learned Optimism' in an attempt to become more optimistic. At that stage I was not aware that I suffered from depression to the extent I did. This article by Martin Seligman discusses the reasons he thinks half of us are wired for pessimism. Click here to read more.



3.  Giant prehistoric bird eats Neanderthal child's bones.

Photo source

Evidence has shown that at giant prehistoric bird in Poland ate a Neanderthal child's bones. Click here to to read all about it.