Wednesday 13th January 2021

The next few days where spend tucked up in our safe bay to sit out the strong forecast winds.

There was dumpling making, schooling, writing e-mails, doing some admin, crochet, wind, rain and sunshine.

After a few “pallet cleanser” crochet projects like a couple of hats, produce bags, a try at a dream catcher and ear rings I was ready for another blanket. I had already bought yarn for  a blanket for myself before I even found the yarn for Nina’s blanket. I found another pattern on the Attic 24 website that I really liked. Its called the “Dune” blanket. I am so excited about doing another one and can’t wait to snuggle myself up in it. The yarn is 60% Bamboo and 40% cotton. Its so hard here to find pure cotton or bamboo or natural yarn mixes. I can’t tolerate wool directly on the skin, it makes me all itchy and I don’t really like the feel of Acrylic or the other man made materials. I prefer the natural yarns. The color choices where pretty limited, so I just bought what they had.

One day I cleaned the fridge, oven, kitchen and the bilge and hoovered our floating house. Jaynee and David came over one afternoon for Jaynee to show Luca a few tricks on his guitar and we had coffee and muffins. That day we had a thunderstorm in the early morning.

On Friday we moved around the corner to another bay to shelter from strong winds. Once we arrived I made some guacamole for lunch and soup and roast vegies for dinner. We had Imagine and Adventurous over for potluck dinner and after dinner and a few drinks we played Nina’s Unicorn Surprise game. After a bit of resistance most of the adults joined in and we had a ball and lots of jokes about the Unicorn that’s essentially “pooing” pretty coloured crystals. Whoever has the most crystals’ at the end of the game won. It makes you wonder how people make up games like this, but is has never failed to create fun. Even Luca’s group of teenage boys choose to play this game out of all of of the ones we had in our big games cupboard back at home.

Over the weekend Nina spend a bit of time with Lori teaching her to crochet and helping Paul with his sewing project and baking together with Lori. We enjoyed the brownies they made together as a pre dinner surprise. We had another round of games time with our cruising friends and another thunderstorm. Tim, Luca, Lucy and I went for a short explore in the dinghy to a nearby bay and to have a look at the blue cave around the corner.

Jaynee had been very sore with her chronic pain so I offered to give her a Reiki session and some Sound Healing. It was nice to get my Tibetan Singing Bowls and give the gift of Reiki and Sound Healing. Even if the space is not ideal in our little V-birth bed where I had to clamber around her to be able to reach all of the body.

I had been drawn to a couple of books I had brought back from New Zealand that I never had time to explore back home. It felt the right time to open them up and check them out. I decided to go through the book “The Artists way” by Julia Cameron and started to write the morning pages the next day. In the past year the concept of creative living, thinking and being has really interested me. How do writers and artists create, where do they find inspiration, how do they cope with critics on their work and with the vulnerability to release their art into the world. How do they still create if everything has been written and drawn and created before. It took me so many years to connect to my own creativity. I was one of those people who once thought that I didn’t have milligram of creativity in me. It hasn’t helped that I grew up in a communistic country where creativity was not encouraged or wanted. It was better to have people who where programmed to do what they where told and didn’t think for themselves or have dangerous creative insights that might be challenging this system.

Having a big lifestyle change like we have just gone through requires copious amounts of creative thinking. It made me think how we are all artists really, creating our lives and realities on a daily basis and how creativity and art shows in so many things, like gardening, cooking, parenting, communication, work, creating a home. I used to only think of art as something artists do, like painters, sculptors, potters, writers, illustrators etc.. So it really interest me to explore my own creativity and how I can express that in so many ways and encourage my children to do the same. I have only just started the book and read the chapters week by week, but it really resonates with me. Lots of the things she writes about sound true.

In her book she recommends to free write every morning in longhand everything that comes to mind to empty the mental clutter and create some space for creativity and intuition to get a word in. I don’t enjoy hand writing a lot. I type with 10 fingers and handwriting seems tedious and frustrating to me. So I decided to be creative and type them out on my laptop instead and how good that feels. I have really enjoyed the first week of the practice. I not only free write the pages, but also write down the things I am grateful for and a few positive intentions and affirmations for the day. She mentions in her book that the morning pages practice is like a meditation and I can only confirm that. Like creative expression meditation comes in many forms and shapes and practices. Some people find the bliss and peace in going for a walk in nature, by swimming in the sea, by spending quality time with a child or friend, by doing crafting, cooking etc.

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