Simplify!

Get Rid of Your Clutter...(did that this past month, four more boxes full in the truck of the car right now waiting to be taken away...even the Rock Star filled a box!!!!)

The Challenge of February is to clear out the things that take away your JOY in LIFE.

In TIME, ENERGY, and POSSESSIONS.

Blog less

Write more

That is what I wrote, under EVENTS, after I took this picture....I wrote it in BIG PURPLE letters.

Not that coming to this space takes away my joy...I LOVE coming here. But in the way of simplifying, this space takes up too much of my time, when I should be focusing more of that time on finishing my book. It is really my insecurities that have made it so easy to be distracted. I find writing here, much easier. It’s like hot-air popcorn...quick and delicious AND I get feed back (from those who figure out my email is on the opening page of “Cats Blog”) right away...it’s that instant gratification thing.

My book on the other hand is the whole process of tilling the earth, making sure the season is right to start panting the seeds. Then there is the whole up keep of the crop....and the waiting for the growth...which can not be forced. One must be patient and realize that growth does not happen all at once. In order for the crop to have the most nutrients and thus be the most healthy and satisfying, one must take great care in the tending of said crop.

And then sometimes the bad weather slows things down...bad weather that says, Is anyone REALLY gonna read this??? What makes you think you are a writter? Did God REALLY talk to you? You can’t do this.

mmmm time to weather the storm readers...time for me to get in my weather gear and not concern myself with what the weather is like.....

My weather gear looks like this:

My journals from the past few years and my fancy “pen for life”.

My lap top....given to me from the men in my life, for my 40th birthday and that big ass Thesaurus from one of my dear Moon Sisters...sorry for the profanity but look at that thing!!! Really is there any other way to describe it??

This is my newest piece of gear, from the same Moon Sister (Thanks Sofia!) It is a voice recorder! So very very cool, and red to boot.

So you see I have all the gear I need, I just need to Simplify...make room in my time.

This is where I will spend most of my time writing....with the view of my back yard and lots of natural light coming in through the patio doors.

I hope you won’t forget about me...

I still will post now and again, but max once a week...for the next month or so.

I will say goodbye for now with a GREAT 80’s tune from a great 80’s movie

tell me which movie this is from (without googling!!!)...or just drop me a line to re-assure me you won’t forget about me: catscorner@telus.net

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAdaQhitdKg

Oh and I should take this time to include “The post that never happened”, the last one I had up that for whatever reason would not transfer onto the web site...this post is about you...those of you who entered my giveaway last month and shared with me some of the roads you have traveled.

It was such an honour to hear from all of you, so here’s to you!

Hi Cat!

I think the path that seems to stand out in my mind is my path of having children and my desire to walk a different road in parenting than that of my parents from home schooling our kids up to grade 3, to spending less time in a church with a steeple and more in the church of reality and life, (if that makes any sense), and also the desire to teach rather than to punish.  Those would be a few of the things that forged a new path in my parenting differing from that of my parents and grandparents.  The journey of parenting is up and down with me learning even more than my kids, I think.

Love,

~Dee

http://deesullivan.blogspot.com/

What a great post...you have made me really think about the path I am on at the moment.

It is not a path I would have chosen if I had had any say in it! It is an uphill climb, I think I am getting nearer to the summit but am not there yet. At times the incline is gradual, almost pleasant, at other times it is so unbelievably steep I worry I may fall as I cling on with every ounce of my being. There have been a few flat resting spots that have allowed me to catch my breath before I embark on the next stage.

I think the last part may even be the toughest, the steepest, but I am trying really hard to keep the top in sight. And man do I have a huge flag to stick in the top so that everyone knows I was the first one to conquer this particular mountain.

Sorry, very metaphoric (is that the word??) for my slow battle to get over this damn post-natal depression while trying to keep a happy marriage and raise two kids!! Just last night I hit another tough spot, so I take a deep breathe and put on my climbing boots.

Lyns

xx

http://lyns-onceuponatime.blogspot.com/

my sweet Irish...

my path... when i mentioned that i've been thinking about my journey for the last week, i think it was more of a nostalgia of where i come from. How more and more, when i look back, the past, my (hi)story seem to be left further and further behind me. I acknowledge it, I am proud of what it gave me, I even make connections to how the qualities and values I possess today are directly linked to my heritage and my family's upbringing...but...my past is just that - my past

the best image i can think of in terms of my journey today is a clearing in a forest...I am surrounded by beautiful old trees. I am looking up and appreciating exactly where i am, somehow feeling like i am one with all that is outside of me. There are no paths..yet. I am going to make mine one step at a time.... In many ways THIS IS MY STILLNESS! Catherine, I am at the moment when I am starting to learn about my self worth....about loving myself! A new friend has lent me her book by Louise Hay "You can heal your life". It was an eye opening....no..heart opening experience! Her ideas on love, forgiveness, resistance to change rang so true for me. Her approach to negative self talk and all the irrational worries about expectations of others left me feeling as if she somehow burrowed herself into my head!!!! (how did she know about my guilt??????) Now, I know that there is a lot of work ahead of me....(you don't change your thought patterns in minutes after 32 years!) and there are going to be individuals that might not be able to continue with me on this journey...and that is ok! God will provide me with those I need. I cannot contain my excitement and eagerness to see what comes as a result of my labor of love.

there are many thoughts and ideas and epiphanies that occupy my soul these days...One realization that is very clear to me at this moment is that my reality is mine alone....

Every single individual sees the world through their own set of eyes and their experience of the world is theirs. The only person that I can be fully responsible for is myself. I cannot change others. I can only be the best I can be...and love

thank you for being in my life

love you

s

(a Moon Sister)

 

Hey Cat...

Here I am entering your giveaway! I particularly love the first print. Gorgeous.

My journey... well, you pretty much know it.

 To sum up... in the past year I spent Sundays in Starbucks avoiding panic attacks; but after having a very healing "meeting" with my old pastor... I am back in church, even without earplugs now! And no panicking.

I am so thankful and amazed at this miracle.

 

Love Simone

http://greatfun4kids.blogspot.com

Oh Cat, you are so sweet!  Giveaway.... too kind! I took a look at your very heart-felt blog and the online women's community you have created; it looks truly lovely.  I am not quite there yet, though.  I don't feel like I have the energy and time to connect with others in this way.  I am literally hurling my energy towards acquaintances who are kinesiologists or physiotherapists, making stronger connections, and forming a network for myself professionally.  I really want to make sure I get my footing here soon, since I am definitely not one who feels comfortable with too many changes and challenges (who does?!).  I am definitely a nervous nelly, and the only way to deal with these feelings is to build some confidence and have connections who can act as my mentors.

I have a job, which starts this week... working with people injured in car accidents mostly.  It will be challenging, since my education is mostly theory based, so I'll have to figure out what to actually do with all this theory.  I'm not sure I'm ready, but I realize I am the type of person that generally doesn't ever feel ready, so its best just to jump in.  I'm also teaching Spin-Cycling classes at the rec center, and this is new and a bit nerve racking for me... so I feel maxed out in many ways right now.

I am reaching out to women in my life a bit more too, as I feel this is missing for me.  So I appreciate you and your blog.  You have a big heart and you are sharing it! That is wonderful. Keep it up!  I'll come around eventually!

xo

Danika

(the Rock Star’s step mom)

Hey Cat, so I thought I would enter your giveaway...

So anyway a path i walked down... well can i tell you about a literal path? When I was about 12 years old we lived in this little settlement on the West coast of the South Island in NZ. Literally on one side of our house was  a small pathway to the beach and on the other side of our house was a road and then huge hills full of rain forest. Quite the little place. Granity probably had no more than 300 people living in it. My Mum just loved living there, 30 minutes to the closest town it was fairly private. Anyway, I would often go with my friend Debbie and climb up the creeks following them up through the forest until we found we could go no further. Often we would discover big beautiful waterfalls with swimming holes. Debbie and I used to imagine that we were the only ones to have walked those paths. We would pretend to be explorers discovering new lands. It was dirty fun play and many times we would wander off from the river to explore the forest. We knew that if we ever found ourselves lost all we had to do was head towards a stream and follow it home.

This one particular day we followed a creek upstream and when we couldn't climb any further we decided to try and climb up through the forest to see if we could meet the creek again further up. We climbed and climbed, tripping over tree roots and using the vines we would ensure that we could keep going over steep terrain without slipping. As you can imagine we eventually figured that we were nowhere near water, and actually we were lost. In fact when we thought about it we couldn't remember seeing or hearing the water for some time. So we decided it was time to start heading down. Again those vines came in handy, we used then to slide down the steep banks without breaking any limbs. It seemed like we had be going down for ages when we finally came across a stream but on the other side of us... the wrong side. We wondered what had happened  but figured that we would follow this stream down and come out eventually. Well you wouldn't believe it but we had travelled quite some distance in that bush, the creek that we followed out turn out to be about 4kms down the coast from where we had started.

My mother never knew of our adventures, I am sure she would have had kittens had she found out. I wonder if she ever wondered how my clothes got so dirty.

LISA

http://everythingbytwos.blogspot.com/

I finally made it!  :)  Thanks for continuing to remind me!  I get so scatter-brained.

A road I have traveled . . .

I think my road to my husband was the most difficult and wonderful I've ever traveled.  

I was with a guy- we'll call him Brad . . . for over three years.  He was a Catholic youth minister.  He had a lot of emotional issues, clung to me in ways that made me feel special and needed, important.  I loved him for loving me . . . though now I think it wasn't his love I was feeling as much as it was his loneliness and insecurity.  We were together here in Carolina but work took him down to Florida and the relationship continued long distance.  My college graduation was impending, I was expecting an engagement ring as my present.  Instead he broke up with me out of the blue, claiming that after over three years, he had decided it was a problem that I wasn't Catholic.  

He had always assured me that my being a Christian was enough.

I was heartbroken.  Angry at Brad.  Angry at God.  Confused.  I had thought all my plans were made, that I'd be heading to Florida after college to begin my life with my love.  But instead, I was going to graduate without him there, without a plan or a place to go.

I was in my last semester.  And without him to talk to on the phone every night, I stopped rushing home from classes and studio to hear his voice.  I started spending more time with friends.  I developed a close core group of girls that I shared creativity with, pain and laughter with, recipes, and more.  We went out dancing, knit scarves on the front porches of the historic houses we were renting.  Had potlucks and helped each other through school projects.  Somehow what I'd lost was replaced by so many things I'd never known I'd been missing.

Then, unexpectedly and only a month or so after my heart was crushed, I met Keith.  He was supposed to be a nobody.  Just a guy to see and have fun with every now and then when I wasn't wrapped up in school or friends.  But it didn't turn out that way at all; he was different.  He didn't need fixing, or saving, or changing, or anything.  He didn't NEED me.  He just WANTED me.  And we fell really fast.  And really hard.

He came to my college graduation.

Less than year after meeting we were married and expecting our son.

I never would have guessed a year before that I'd be over my ex, in love with another, and blissfully married.  It was a whirlwind, and not my plan.

It was His. It seems so often in my life that I have to take the wrong road to find the right one, and I have to get lost before I understand where I'm going, and I have to fall down before I can rise up.  I'm always a step behind everyone else, I think.  But I get there eventually, taking the long way around, and it never fails to amaze me- these beautiful places I wind up.

Love to you, Cat.  Thanks for having me write this down.

And I'd love either print I can get my paws on!  :)

xoxo

j--

Rosy Revolver Jewelry Design

www.rosyrevolver.com

919.614.1426

 

Of course I would love to enter. I actually love the top print the mostest but both are totally beautiful. the grassy path into the trees and mist speaks to me more though. i loved this the first time you put it on your blog too.

 you already know my journey stuff, so not much to say there. I feel kind of halted at the moment because my mind seems occupied just keeping us all alive during this holiday period. and the lack of routine does something else to me too.

 love you friend

Bridget

can I enter again? since you entered twice on my giveaway ;)

and i truly do love love love "what dreams may come" pic.

have you got many entrients?

love and light nosey parkering

bridget

http://widgetlucy.blogspot.com/

Hi Cat

 My journey - in a short 'nutshell' way has been wonderful and painful - yet I know God's hand and strength has been in it all.  I have grown up in a lovely family with a believing mum and a non-believing dad and one brother.  Nearly 10 years ago my brother died from an accidental drug overdose - such a sad time.  I have also suffered two miscarriages, one at 18 weeks... yet through it all God has been amazing - a solid rock and my hope.

 I so love your prints... "What Dreams May Come" is my fav!!!

 

Thanks so much!!!

 xKristy

http://www.paisleyjade.com/

Hi Cat,

I haven't written you before but I love the prints you are giving away and had to connect.  2010 is a year in which I hope to make some changes for myself.  I'm a 48yr old mother of 2, one in college, one a jr in high school.....I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train!  For years I have given everything I had to my family putting aside my needs, somehow I managed to make myself believe I didn't matter in the equation.  Well, I do matter and now it's time to spread the love and care I've shown to my girls and give it to myself.

The Peaceful Path really speaks to my heart's needs right now as I embark on this new path.

Thanks for the lovely give away and the gift of sharing my story here with you.

Christine

(a non-blogger,a blog lover)

Cat,

 

Your last blog post almost made me cry, it spoke to my heart so much. I am so unsure right now of the path that lies ahead of me in 2010. New Years has always been different for me before. I plan, I set goals, I get excited about the new challenges for the new year ahead, but this year started so differently and I feel a little unsettled and sad about that. For the first time in many years I have started the year saying I have no idea what is in store for me. It's scary to say I have no goals. My husband and I were youth pastors in our church until we sensed God calling us to move to a new town and start over. It has been very difficult, and after being trained so fully to set a 5 year plan it is unsettling to now not have one. But as you said in your post, I feel as if it is time to be still. I would hate to think my plans might be muddling up the Greater Plan, and so these first few days of 2010 have been about accepting that I don't need to see the whole path to step onto it and start walking. So your photos are beautiful and brought a tear to my eye. Thank God for his peace, and for the talent he has given you to put into words and pictures what I have not been able to.

 

Much love,

 

Cass

(aka Chickasuras_Rex)

Cat--

I stumbled upon your site just as I stumbled upon the Womens World magazine.  I really identify with your writing as I too am a mother, a creative soul who has found writing and photography as ways of expressing myself.  I was intrigued by the opportunity to share... and really that is what caught me.  Are we not always looking for a place to share and be heard?  The fact that I love both photos (especially the second) is just an aside.

So my path....  it has been like many others, one that twists and turns and filled with challenges and successes, occasionally littered with bad decisions and lit by the good ones.  Until lately I felt like I was stumbling along.  Like my path was one that had endless turns and I could not see a pattern nor what was around the endless corners.  Last year I entered a huge change.  I decided to leave a good paying profession with a pension (teaching) to pursue something that I was passionate about (volunteer management and non profit work).  I struggled to get my foot in the door, and finally did.  When I slowed down, I realized I had returned full circle to where I was and what I wanted 10 years previous.  Yet, 10 years previous I could never have secured this job as it was all the turns and twists and other jobs that I had gone through that brought me here.  It was like someone had handed me a map and said "Hey, Krista!  Your orienteering skills DON'T suck!".  I felt so much better.

It was a beginning in a personal reawakening.  I felt like a waterlily, struggling out of the muck, sending my leaves up for sunlight and working so hard to set a bud.  Then I finally had a bud and bam!  I bloomed.  They say some waterlilies take almost 7 years to produce their first flower.  I took a little longer than that.  And with this feeling and story, I took a picture of a lily that I loved.  For my birthday, I gave myself the gift of having that flower immortalized as a tattoo on my chest.  On my sternum between my breasts.  Right where I feel joy bubble up from, but also where I feel the weight of unhappiness.  I later was told by someone it is actually on a significant chakra point, something completely unplanned.

My path has gone full circle, and I see it with clarity.  The path ahead of me is once again unknown but I feel much more confident in my own abilities and the energy around me, that I will be guided well.  My personal path is a struggle as I work at re-building a marriage that failed in its initial form, yet we are trying to recreate something new and different.  If I had not had the past year of great awareness, I would not have had the confidence that I CAN re-build and that even if it fails, I will be okay.

My path has never been easy.  But I also doubt that anybody truly has it easy.  We all have our challenges.  The stronger we are, the bigger the challenge and potential for change it seems.  My path zigs and zags, but I now know that I have a good solid pack on my back filled with a great deal of skills to weather what faces me on the trail.  I will be okay.

Cat-- thanks for this opportunity to share!

Krista

http://sensationsofbeautiful.blogspot.com/

Also I wanted to mention a lovely young gal from South Dakota who gave an worth reading review of Alice Sebold’s book Lucky. You can find it and her here:

http://wherehasthewindtakenyou.blogspot.com/2010/01/ask-yourself-one-question.html

The Scientist would also like you to know that he would like you to check out his blog...he is home from school today...a little under the weather.

Love and Light

See you soon!