Jan
6
2010
One life, live it…etc
I’m all about photography at the moment, and less about the words. Our Blog Camp 365 project has rekindled my love affair with Flickr and I’m spending a lot of time ‘over there’ and less time in the blogosphere at the moment. But save me a spot would you, because my Flickr passion waxes and wanes so it won’t be long before I’m troubling your blogs again.
This renewed enthusiasm has led to another on my list of 39 things to do before I’m 40 being crossed off ‘Learn how to use the Lensbaby’. I’m pretty chuffed to be getting to grips with the Lensbaby as there’s a bit of a knack to it, which has eluded me for a year. The wife gave me a quick lesson and ta da! I can do it, ish, but I do at least know what I’m supposed to be doing which is a major step forward. Those lemons up the top were taken with the Lensbaby…I know they look blurry but they are supposed to be, that’s the result of the Lensbaby’s ‘selective focus’ doodah. It’s not blur, it’s art. Giggle.
I was too hasty in crossing off ‘learn to crochet’. I can’t get to grips with the basics at all despite quite a lot of reading/YouTube watching, cry. I’ve put that project on ice until Blog Camp 3.0 next week where I intend to get the lovely Kristina in to a headlock and force her to teach me the ways of the hook.
The 39 List, which was only ever intended as a light-hearted and rather trivial project, has really got me thinking in a surprising profound way. Or perhaps it’s the thought of turning 40? I’m not sure what the catalyst is but I am continually finding my thoughts straying in to the ‘this is it…life’s not a rehearsal, one live, live it blah blah blah blah’ territory. Who knows how long I will live, but it’s a fair bet that I’m at least half way through it at this point and quite possibly that proverbial red bus is right around the corner. The realisation that there’s not ‘all’ that much time left and the fact that I still have a lot of things I want to do has really hit home in the last few weeks. The list of things isn’t getting any shorter, but my life is, so I might as well get cracking.
I’m not a procrastinator by nature, but I am a creature of habit and I really don’t like change. I’ve mostly been in hibernation since having children as I found the first few years really hard going, and it was all about survival. But those tough years are gone now and it’s time to come out of hibernation and GET ON WITH IT. By which I mean, well, life I suppose. I seem to be engrossed in the reassuring rhythm of my own personal Groundhog Day, never breaking in to a sweat or doing anything different and just going through the motions of life. It’s like I’m 89 not 39.
But The 39 List has forced me to take action and, I have to say it, I like it. I’m even considering adding bonus items like learning the cha cha cha for no other reason than ‘why the hell not’? As Julochka likes to say ‘What are you gonna remember?’ It’s a good touchstone…what am I going to remember more…another night glued to my MacBook or learning to dance, however badly? What am I going to remember…the fact that my laundry was (nearly) always up to date…or the fact that I finally learnt to crochet?
I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions because, let’s face it, they’re all a bit crap aren’t they? But I’m officially declaring war on inertia, and am making 2010 the Year of Action.
And that’s what I’m gonna remember.
