I had an update ready and then… life happened.
My boss decided to retired effectively shutting down our company. And then COVID-19 took over all of our lives.
So yes, I’m still on my no-buy but it’s lost it’s sparkle, it’s challenge fun challenge quality and now has become a necessity. Maybe I needed the practice before not buying became a necessity.
With that being said and in light of everyone going on in the world I feel like I have all of the material things I need and that’s a really reassuring feeling. Lately when I think of something I want it’s usually a book I’d like to read or new watercolors. I can live without those. I have books to read and watercolors to paint with.
Stopping shopping was sort of the easy part of the process. What’s been harder and slower is filling my days with more important things. Granted I do have a lot of extra time on my had while I job search. I wouldn’t say it’s quite turned into the spiritual, edifying practice I’d hoped it would be… yet.
Just in the last couple of weeks I have started painting with watercolors. I’m not great at it tbh. I looked up a couple YouTube videos on “how to paint tiny flowers” and I can now paint about 5 flowers over and over again. Every time it feels like a miracle that that little squiggle becomes a flower so I’m not tired of it yet.
I’ve also started reading poetry. Maybe because my poor frazzled brain can’t quite sit still long enough for a whole book but I can commit to a few beautiful poems. It feels like a luxury to read poetry. It feels like when I was in high school and I would memorize my favorite poems so I’d always have them with me.
So… poetry, watercolors and long walks with a dash of frantic job searching.
Hopefully a better update soon!
a flash of delight 