Taking a Break

I'm not keeping up with this practice, have a huge stack of newspapers waiting for me to pick out obits to black out. Things have changed, my focus has shifted, this is starting to be more of a task than an outlet or creative jump start that it was in the beginning. I'm starting to dread going into the room where the newspapers wait, dread coming to that section of the newspaper each Sunday. I need to let this go for now because I now need the time for reading and scanning family documents and letters, organizing and scanning photos, something I've added to my other outlets of quilting, sketching, and art journaling. But it is difficult for me to give up on a project, even if I know it has served its purpose and my interests have moved on. I either need to catch up on what's stacked waiting or toss those papers and quit collecting more.

And then this "Great Work Provocation" from Box of Crayons arrived in my mailbox:

Cross that thing - the one you’ve been avoiding - off your list today.

I don’t care if you do it or don’t do it.

But cross it off your list.

I am a great list maker, knowing that most of the time I will not get to everything on it. But it gives me something to shoot for and a great deal of satisfaction when I can cross things off. And I've never minded much carrying over items to the next list. But here was an edict, one tailored made for the Newspaper Obit Blackouts sitting on the to do list week after week. It was not only a kick in the pants but permission granted. The stack of newspapers went into recycling over the weekend. I may start up the practice again someday or I may not. Consider this blog on hiatus.

Thanks for reading along. Maybe take the time to go back to some of the earlier posts. It seems the bests ones are there.