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| Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh |
It is 10am on the last day of my holiday-at-home and I am only now sitting down to write my “49 before 50” list.
I have started it many times, here and there across the week, scribbling notes on knitting patterns and the corners of newspapers. No doubt it won’t be finished today, but that’s OK. High on the list has to be to buy a notebook to contain all these thoughts before I lose them.
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| Cornus alba “Sibirica” at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh |
Reviewing my scattered notes, I am struck by the underlying theme of achieving balance between my work and home personae. On the one hand, I have written “Design a sock”, while another note says “Update my CV”. At the moment, those directives are in opposition to one another. I have shyed away from creating a “Linked In” profile for my day job identity because the person I would describe would not be “me”. And at the same time, I avoid joining F-book in case my knitterly self is discovered by work colleagues.
This is not healthy! So for the time being my list says: “Make connections”. And there I go again – writing in secret code even though I am my only audience! Tsk.
Walk on a beach.
Keep a sketchbook.
Finish my quilt.
I refuse to write “Get fit”, but I will say “Perform 49 deliberate acts of exercise in the year”.
Similarly “Eat healthy food” will be described as “Be vegan for 49 days in the year”.
Both those goals are set low, in the hope that they become the start of a life-habit.
Because that’s what this is about: setting out as I mean to go on. It’s not about punishing myself or restricting myself, it’s about exploring better ways to be me.
And having fun. Note to self: life is not a life sentence.
I am going to make a new page on the blog where my list will live. And I aim to write a weekly post on progress.
But right now, I am off to buy some funky stationery. If ever there was a good excuse to purchase a beautiful journal and some purple ink, this is it! :)