Winter '14 and project 333

A huge project has been completed and I have the inclination for blogging on an overwhelming number of topics. It hard to choose one so I grabbed the one on top.

I always enjoy doing "project 333" but when the weather is mutable I can find it very difficult. This past autumn was hard as the weather was quite unpredictable. This is not a problem now thanks to the current wintery weather which puts clear limits on what can be worn or not.  Also it practically urges one to wear velvet and I love that urge.

So I have my list of clothing, it's being tweaked a bit but I am at 30 pieces right now. As usual [for me] I am not counting outerwear or boots or exercise clothing or accessories.

Making my 333 list is routine but I did notice something new. Only six pieces [20%] on my list were bought new, the other 25 pieces were purchased at thrift or consignment stores.  I'm a bit stunned by that. I knew my thrifting over the years had been honed but wow - I am good at it. This is inspiring me to learn more new things about my buying habits in 2014.

So I have decided to track my personal purchases this year. I hope to tease out why I buy things, when I buy them and maybe how I make room for them. I'll also be noting if I bought something new or second-hand. We'll see how it goes.
 

Babies--you can only prepare so much

One of the big changes this week was that my lead's baby was born 2/21. A healthy, happy baby is always a great thing for the world. The second Kat born this year [of which I am aware].

We all knew the baby was coming of course. I believe my lead first mentioned it last August or so. We had plenty of time to prepare. My lead's pregnancy seemed to go normally, we all knew that the baby was due the end of Feb or first week of Mar. We were informed and ready!

Ha. It just goes to show that no matter how much you plan you cannot predict the future. I honestly don't think we could have done more ahead of time. We didn't fail. It just seems that until that person is actually gone you don't realize what is really going to come up when they are gone. The pattern doesn't change until the piece is gone and the pattern...ok you know what I mean.

This became one of the many challenges of the past week. Things came up. A capable person's work was now being divided among many and new questions, new procedures lots of new started. It made me pause.

Why are we so afraid of change? Is it really that bad? Why do we dislike getting out of our comfort zones when it seems to be so good for us to learn new things? More personally, is yoga helping me have a calm mind when stress erupts? Is it any one's job, much less mine, to hold people accountable? Does it take more strength to bend?

Really, what will make me happier with this life? I'm thinking bending not rigidity. The kicker: How can I implement this?

Join me if you like for this social science experiment: More qi gong. Tune in and see how it went. Try and see if you can be less rigid around your own challenge if you want. Peace out