Context

Well, I am posting the last of them two at a time so that the whole thing will end tomorrow. I pulled the last card this morning. 30 days. This is it! I made it! Tomorrow you'll see the last two. It's been grand. Seriously, what a great thing to do--a something, an anything for 30 days straight. I highly recommend doing the your own something an anything for 30 days. You'll be surprised by what comes up when you have a distinct context.

For example, I've started cooking again with gusto. It's probably the weather, but I also liken it to my life opening up again, as I've consciously been living it for at least 15 minutes every single day. May sound dumb and trite, but seriously, how often do we sit and really purposely LIVE on continuous effort? I think that's what ritual creates for us. As a result, I've started to do the things that nurture my life in other areas. I used to cook a great deal, but moving to New York and moving in with someone put a wrench in the works. I started to look for easier outlets--cheap restaurants or easy foods. When you're new in a town, you have to find your new rituals, your new places to go. New York is its own character--often it's MORE work to do normal things like doing laundry or grocery shopping or how about just going to work? By the time you get home, it's late, I'm tired and who wants to do more WORK?

But I love cooking. That's the part that I forgot. I love exploring. The book I supposedly have been working on is about COOKS for pete's sake. So my new thing to do is to do a new recipe every week. I work best in contexts, in clear forms. A page a day from a word a day, no matter what, works for me. Calendars with a clear end date, 12 months of the year, work for me. Recipes with their measurements and clear ingredients work for me. There's A LOT of creativity and spontaneity that happens when I have guidelines. So often I feel cut loose into the wilderness, but when I can gather myself and feel just ONE rule in my day, a lot can unfold.