Simplify

Ta-Da! I've figured out how to simplify my life.

1. Exercise less
2. Eat less
3. Clean my house less often
4. Shower once a week
5. Drop some piano students
6. Practice the piano only when preparing for an occasion
7. Stop blogging
8. Visit my grandkids less often
9. Wear the same clothes three days in a row
10. Never go into my art studio
11. Stop visiting friends
12. Take all the unread books back to the library

        There you have it. A dozen ways to make my life simpler. 

If you want to add some fun to your life read my cosy mystery and find out how the piano teacher got mixed up in an international intrigue.

Read the first eleven chapters of my musical mystery here

Inviting Back and Letting Go

"Umkehr ist der schnellste Weg voran."

C.S Lewis

My translation; Coming back or returning is the fastest way forward.

Each month I will be choosing a new way to invite my word of 2018 into my life. This January I wish to invite back a practice I did last January. My diet needs a reset so I'm letting go of sugar, bread, and dairy. Today is day eight and I must say yesterday and this morning have been the hardest. I felt light headed and lacking energy and I can't help thinking it may be my body letting go of the hold sugar has on my physical and mental well being.

The foods I am eating are whole, unprocessed, and plentiful, so I'm not hungry.

Last year I found after two weeks I didn't want sweets. As in many good things I invite into my life, time dulls the positive consequences and I need Umkehr. 

Click here to see a table of contents of this year's process.

And, I thank-you for reading some of my mystery novel. It is the story of a piano teacher found dead and a valuable Liszt autograph manuscript gone missing.
Click here for chapters

Motivate

“Obligers may find it difficult to form a habit, because often we undertake habits for our own benefit, and Obligers do things more easily for others than for themselves. For them, the key is external accountability.”

― Gretchen Rubin, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives

Five Minute Friday motivates me to write. I wish I could say I write without an outward motivation, but I can't. I move more easily and with commitment with outward accountability. I suppose God knows that about me. That reason alone makes the word covenant, sacred.

  In our relationship, God promises me his spirit and I promise to always remember him. I am motivated to start the day and end the day, in Him. I can forget, rebel, and ignore but he draws me back because of his outstretched hand. 
   I feel that God wants me to write. This November I jumped into writing a novel, I joined NaNoWriMo, and I felt his gentle nudge. The book is about a detective, a Christian, who is investigating a murder. Not compatible? She has some compelling reasons. I really like her. 
   God works with people who motivate themselves, with those who need outward accountability, with those who rebel, and even with those pesky questioners. His gospel encompasses every personality.

   “What are your plans tomorrow?” Reggie asked. 

   “I will sleep in and go to church with my mother.”

   “That’s right, I forget that you are a believer. No offense meant, but I don’t understand how you can see what we see day in and day out and still believe in a God.”

   Stevie replied slowly. “It is preciously why I believe. God is my hope that this messed up world has some redeeming value. I believe in the power of God to save, even the hardened criminal who forfeits his right to be free.” Stevie laughed at Reggie’s expression. “There you have my sermon and it isn’t even Sunday.”

Rubato

Read the first ten chapters of my musical mystery here

My One Little Word for 2018 Is Umkehr (Return)

My word for 2018 is a word in my native tongue. 

Even though I was raised in the United States I grew up speaking German at home. There are many words which cannot fully be translated into English. Umkehr is such a word. My mother would use the word on our long walks. As we turned to retrace our path back home she would ask, "Sollen wir Umkekr machen?"

This word will invite me to return to things forgotten or abandoned temporarily. 

Umkehr  Um•kehr     

    (lit)  turning back  

 zur Umkehr zwingen    to force  to turn back   

geh   (=Änderung)  change  ,  (zur Religion etc)   changing one's ways

zur Umkehr bereit sein    to be ready to change one's ways  

"She went back to all that was comfortable and familiar while keeping her gaze looking ahead- to all that would be and could."

Colleen Attara

January- Return to a Healthy Diet

January 8- Inviting Back And Letting Go
January 15- Remembering Me
January 22- Trusting The Results
January 29- Eliminating The Problematic

February- Return to Meditation and Prayer 

February 5- A Vision of Umkehr
February 12- Spring Is Umkehr
February 19- Returning To Past Successes 
February 26- Consistency Versus Quality

March- Return To Writing Everyday
March 5- Editing
March 12- Fighting Resistance To Daily Writing
March 20- Starting Fresh Everyday


April- Umkehr To My Six Habits of Happiness
April 2- FOMO
April 9- Questions About Umkehr
April 16- Unused Creativity Is Not Benign
April 23- What If I Get Offtrack Again


May- Umkehr in Pictures
May1- Pictures of Trying Again
May 7- Using My Words On My Paintings
May 14- Returning To My Ancestors With Pictures
May 28- Looking At Pictures From the Past

June- Mid Year Progress Evaluation
June 3- Asking The First Three Questions
June 18- More Questions About Progress
June 25- Kein Umkehr, No Re-Entry

July- Playing with my Word Visually
July 8- Playing Artistically with my Word to Make it Visual
July 15- A Visual For The Cycle Of Change



Weekly posts will keep track of my return

***********************************************************************************

And, I thank-you for reading some of my mystery novel, Rubato. Judith, a piano teacher extraordinaire,  makes a decision which, upon reflection, changes the lives of others, not for the better.

Click here to read the book for free.

Different

Always Do Your Best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret. 

Don Miguel Ruiz

My husband tells the story of when he was taking a philosophy class in college and the awful truth first hit him. Descartes did not think like him, at all.

If we all think differently and see the world differently how can we possibly understand each other?

  Always assume others are doing their best. What? Can that possibly be true? If that statement is hard to believe of others then we probably don't believe it of ourselves. But, think of the freedom this idea brings to our relationships. If I believe I am doing my best and I believe you are too, then I will be at peace with my actions and be more at peace with yours. 

Do you need a good book this holiday season? Take a peek at my new novel Rubato, a musical mystery involving a dead piano teacher. Yikes, I'm a piano teacher. No, this is not a biography.

 

I have been writing with the Five Minute Friday group for more than three years and I really enjoy the talented writers who share themselves each week.

Nurturing Monday- A Ritual To Remember My Word

I'm a big believer in the way ritual can put us in connection with our spirituality. 

Sue Monk Kidd

In 2015 I wrapped up my black plastic word 'ribbistrate' in beautiful paper and returned it to my friend Jenni who made up the word and introduced me to it in a meeting of women. 

 Combining the word ribbies, which is baseball slang for a batted in run, and monstare, which means to show we get the meaning. It is  unparalleled joy. It can be for yourself or seeing the achievement of someone else.
In 2016 my word 'mindfulness' retired as my focus word but it stayed very much front and center as a way of being. 

This year 'nurture' is retiring with honors because the reminder to nurture has changed my view of what I can do. I thought is might be a call to serve others but it has also worked to give me permission to enjoy a beautiful sunrise, to pursue a goal for the sake of learning, and to take stock of what I nurtured subconsciously, perhaps to my detriment.

To say goodbye to my word I will move the painting from above the mantle to a new location. There is already a canvas waiting for paint, to hold next year's word. I'm waiting for mail from Colleen Attara to see how next year's word looks in red. Someone asked about buying the painting with the word 'nurture' but I'm not ready to let it go. It will be in a less dominant place but still influence my actions.

              What year end rituals do you have? Do you think about them before the holidays or just as the old year slips away?

To go to the overview of My Year of Nurturing click  here.

Only

              The word 'only' is so exclusive

   If I accept only this or that into my life I, by definition, exclude the other choices I might encounter. If it is a matter of choosing good and bad, only choosing good is a positive thing. If it is a matter of choosing good or better, then things get more difficult. Add in choosing only the best, then many, many things will be excluded.

     I don't know for sure where I'm going with this but here is an example. I am a very visual person. I decided one day to organize my books by color or color harmony. That process of choosing, let's say, only warm colors for a shelf made me exclude many books that were similar in subject and even the same author was shelved differently. Visually the whole bookshelf was very satisfying to look at. Only, it was hard to find a book because as yet I hadn't memorized the color of every book's spine. Did I abandon my exclusive shelving idea? No, I did not. The visual appeal, for me,was better than the shelving by author or subject. Paul admonished us to choose the better way, which he later explained was the way Christ loved. His charity for others was only based on pure love. I am here on earth to learn to choose. How I organize my life should reflect my best choices. How I shelve my thoughts should attract more good thoughts which should ultimately turn me outward to others, more than inward to my own self.  

"If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

 

I have been writing with the Five Minute Friday group for more than three years and I really enjoy the talented writers who share themselves each week.