dance of a painted lady: life is a spiral

I listened to this audiobook this week and it enabled me to put some of the practical finishing touches to the project that's been brewing in me for a few months now - see next post.

My project is not about spending or not spending exclusively but that's an important dimension of it - conscious consumption.

Her ten point preparation list was especially helpful:

1. Why are you doing it?
2. Take inventory and declutter
3. Write 3 lists:

- Essentials
- Non-essentials - things you can't buy
- Approved shopping list - specific things you're allowed to buy
4. Unsubscribe from all shopping emails and sites
5. Set up a shopping ban savings account
6. Tell everyone - especially those you spend most time with - and pick an accountability person
7. Replace costly habits with free things to do
8. Pay attention to your triggers and change your reactions
9. Learn to live without (30 days) or become more resourceful
10. Appreciate what you have

♡

The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all.
Josiyah Martin

I relate to this. Intellectually and pragmatically I understand the need for all the phases (and dare say I can do them) but energetically, I do love me a beginning! This includes the quiet embryonic time before something tangible emerges; the germination, the incubation... love it. My life’s work is about potential and helping others to unlock theirs. For me, that’s where the magic lives first… in the acorn, in the chrysalis, in the egg. No good if it just stays there forever of course, but it always amazes me how the whole incredible thing, whatever it ends up becoming, is locked up in an often non-descript wrapping.

And suddenly you know: It's time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.
Meister Eckhart

Once the thing actually starts to emerge, I like to create a sense of ongoing “beginning” by taking an organic approach to how it grows and develops and allow for some surprises.

With ideas, if I don’t attach myself too much to an outcome, a specific plan, or a need to know exactly what’s coming, when and how, then I can sense and respond as the thing unfolds. It’s how I get through it. If things are too clearly mapped out and it leaves no room for the unexpected, I find it hard to stay as interested or focused. I love the idea that just around the corner there might be something I haven’t anticipated. Not something in the form of a monster that’s going to gobble down the thing and me and spit out our bones, of course, but something that adds to it in a way I’d not imagined.

I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it.
Rosalie de Castro

Having said that it’s also true that like any other freshly hatched thing, something new is vulnerable and can be easily squashed and can be easily squashed if it’s left exposed and unprotected. I’ve suffered the effects in the past of sharing too soon or letting an idea loose into the world without due care and having the life stamped out of it by criticism and negativity from others. It’s a tricky dance. And a beautiful cycle.

Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.
Anaïs Nin