I've always enjoyed this tune from an era of pride and hope that blossomed in the 1970s.
Moving on up!
It's not like we're enjoying a long-overdue respect or a nouveau riche lifestyle and relocating to a deluxe apartment in the sky. It's more like we are planning to move and that I agreed to tackle my "discomfort with heights". That's right. I don't like high places. I rarely go out onto our balcony. When I do, I hold the railing tightly if I look over the sides. Also, we recently discovered a wasp's nest nearby!
For our next habitation, one of the young folk convinced me to consider an apartment with a nicer (higher) view in addition to living in a well-managed, affordable and secure building. Okay, okay! It has only been two years since the last move yet once again I am reviewing the top 10 tips for downsizing. I like to plan well in advance, especially when it comes to clearing out the clutter, the things we accumulate throughout our lives.
It's curious and daunting what objects - or animals - make their way into your home, demanding your time, money and space. I love planning projects, making task lists and logistical checklists. I like getting creative with floor plans, taking measurements, cutting out scaled-down, two-dimensional paper shapes of furniture and placing them in various arrangements. The kids thought I was being obsessive last time but it sure helped when we moved into le petit apartement and made everything fit into place.
My
evil plan of pushing one or two birds out of the nest last time
didn't work. One wasn't quite ready and another ended up moving back
in. So here we are again, still in our cozy, crowded apartment of four humans and two cats.
Benefits of moving often:
You get to review your collection of people, animals and things;
You can offload extra furniture and kitchen supplies to your grown children for when they move out. When they move out...;
You discover interesting things at the back of the fridge, cupboard, pantry;
You finally locate that article of clothing, important document or much-loved book that went missing!
You get to move into a new home with a fresh coat of paint;
You plan ahead for a positive change in your life and a change of scenery. This sure helps one get through a long, dark winter!
It's not like you're losing connection to a community by pulling up roots. With the positive influences of technology, email and social networking, you can still keep in touch with old neighbours and friends. Well, maybe not the annoying old bigot next door...
Do you have others to offer? Please copy and paste in the comments box below.
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You may also want to visit the blog for The Year of the Rabbit, a novel about fate, family and forgiveness. Thanks for dropping by. T
Sunday morning reading I have been up for hours due to the whining of one hungry feline, a full bladder and the joyous noises of the young family living below. I sat in my morning fogginess, sipping my first cup of instant coffee, and read a few blog entries by womanly writing acquaintances. One is sharing tidbits about pancakes, mardi gras and the preparation for Lent. Another is lamenting the approach of Valentine's day and weighing the benefits of being an older, single woman.
As a recovering Catholic, I read the former while recalling distant memories of long, boring church services. One could say that since publishing the novel, I am leaning towards the irreverent. I don't wait until the start of Lent to share in a pancake feast. That's almost a bi-weekly tradition in our home.
Enjoying my singledom, I chuckled at the latter's musings. Except for the vague "be my valentine" invitation from an eccentric male acquaintance, Idon't expect much these days. It's not that I've given up... it's more like I have become wary of consumerized expectations. I also have some apprehensions due to how some peopleinterpret love and distort a relationship into one of abusive entitlement rather than gentleness and mutual respect.
As the jaded fog clears, I acknowledge the new moon, theworldwide and beyond celebrations of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Snake. I have a list of things to acquire at the store. I just need a few more tasty treats to enhance the meal and gathering of family and friends in le petit apartement.
This is not a blog post about outer space or science fiction. It's about using a 5,000 year-old practice to improve harmony in one's living space, one's little corner of this beautiful planet. Many years ago, under the influence of my respect for ancient practices, I picked up a book about Feng Shui. It provided some well-illustrated explanations of the proper placement of objects in one's home, landscape or work place. Since I didn't have much control over my personal and shared living space at the time, the book went onto the shelves.
I now have better control over the placement of furniture, art and books in my abode, the shared living space and my bedroom. Of course, having cats somewhat influences where you put things too.
As a welcome distraction on a Saturday, I attended a two-part workshop on Feng Shui, hosted by one of the East Winds stores in Ottawa. I brought my colourful book but didn't need to open it becauseparticipants were given handouts with charts, illustrations and instructions. We also had the opportunity to ask questions of our instructor as she patiently walked us through the content and made suggestions based on our floor plans.
One important thing I learned was that one should not have a washroom directly facing or above the entrance to the home.
The instructor and fellow participants had a good laugh when I explained the dilemma of our kitty litter box that resides in the front hall closet due to limited space anywhere else in the petit apartment. Yes, a cat box counts as a toilet sooo, I proceeded to re-locate it after I arrived home last night. I also moved a few paintings and plants plus hung some pretty, colourful crystals.
No, I am not superstitious at all.
I also found ways to counteract the influence of bathroom walls and not to let wealth or health get flushed down a toilet. Holy sh*t! I should talk to the landlord about that run-on toilet in the master suite..
No, I am not superstitious at all.
During the workshop, I also learned that one should not approach the practice of Feng Shui with fear. It is based on an ancient practice and is not a cult or religion.
I figured that 5,000 year-old i-Ching book was still being read and referred to for a reason. Of course, as with many ancient teachings, there are different schools of thought and experts that criticize other experts or teachers. Sigh...
The main reasons I attended this workshop were to help maintain harmony in our little home and to provide a clean, loving space that will support the educational and career aspirations of its residents. The cats weren't too impressed with my moving things around - especially their litter box. Judging from the smell I encountered in one of the other rooms this morning, I know they found it.
As for old, outdated spiritual texts, I feel that some have outlived their purpose for setting a moral compass. Yes, I think the human mind and civilizations have evolved enough to know it isn't right to hit your wife, your child; to stone homosexuals or to perpetuate a spiral of revenge by justifying aneye for an eye and dragging humanity into a cycle of blind violence.
That's all I have to say about that.
One comfort with moving stuff around was that my much-loved Tree of Life printwould counteract the flushing away of energy now that it is moved to another wall.
The birds are still facing in the correct directions as indicated in ancient Egyptian texts.
I suppose it was a wonderful invention, that digital camera thing. Technology has advanced exponentially in the past few decades. Its speed and convenience though should not take away from the reflective moments and leisurely approach when enjoying the good life.
The immediacy and convenience of digital photography may tarnish the judgement and scrutiny the artist needs when choosing her subject matter and the resulting number of photographs to spew out at her audience.
The combination of digital cameras, computers and blogs make it so easy to alter and share pictures. Traditional photographs aren't easy to change or manipulate - unless you are able scan them, add a nostalgic sepia effect and border.
Plants make easy subjects. They don't complain or hide. They also seem to display appreciation after you have re-potted them, fondled their roots, administered fresh soil, vitamins and a little TLC.
Guess what I have been doing this first week of vacation, this holiday weekend, in-between cleaning and preparing for a special family dinner?
I attribute this particular manic episode of creativity to residual memories of a cuddly dream after watching another video with this beautiful, bright young man. I like what he says about being affected by a moment within a scene while watching a movie. You could say the same thing about being touched after reading a passage in a good book. Just imagine the ah-ha moments when one watches scenes of a movie made from that book... One can dream.
This city apartment dweller is kind of sad to not have gotten out for nature walks yet during a much-needed vacation. I may have missed the opportunity to capture some blazing autumn colours and young buck sightings. I am sure there will be other interesting subjects and scenes presenting opportunities during week two. Happy Thanksgiving, all. Drop by The Year of the Rabbit blog to see what Flo has been offering.
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