Generally I am a creature of habit like most human beings. Most of my days have a rhythm that I don’t think much about and the day to day chores get done on a regular basis. I have a crazy quilt way of making a living that even has a schedule I can predict most days (more about that in another post). Lately though I have noticed a shift in how certain things are getting done.
Maybe it’s my age (I’m not telling! Well, maybe later.) and I’m needing more quiet to concentrate. Maybe I have been running on warp speed for too many years and the engines are wearing down. Maybe I am craving my country roots after almost 20 years of suburbia. Whatever it is, I have found that I have been escaping my suburban townhome more often to do my thinking.
I happily work in my newly converted (from post-teenage boy room) studio space at my townhome when I need to get the actual work done, but for the thinking, new ideas, planning, zoning out parts of life/work I have begun to head to The Farm.
Later on I will give you more information about it, but just know that when I escape it is a 45 minute drive from where I live to a rural area with a different culture from my town. At The Farm I tend the garden with my boyfriend. My goofy city dogs come with me and pretend they are cool country dogs though I don’t dare let them off their leashes. They have no “forest smarts” as opposed to “street smarts” which they don’t have either. I would rather they not end up as coyote food! We have three horses at The Farm as well, though we don’t get to spend as much time with them as we would like. Not that the horses are complaining. They get their daily food and hay and get to spend their leisurely days in the cool woods with a lovely spring running through it, without having to earn their keep by toting a couple of humans around.
I am writing this post at The Farm now. I should really give it a more creative name. Maybe in the future it will get a proper title. The Farm is down a dirt road with only two neighbors so there is no traffic noise. The rare, unknown car makes all animals and humans alike run to see who is stirring up the dust. Occasionally a rooster crows and there is a strange anomaly where we can hear a distant neighbor’s radio fairly clear on certain days. A dog bark. Birds, lots of birds. Crickets and tree frogs. What is missing? Traffic noise, neighbors talking, someone else’s TV or music set too loud.
I did not realize just how much constant sound surrounds me until I started spending time at The Farm. It took some getting used to. At first I was stir crazy and didn’t know what to do with myself. Now, I swear my blood pressure drops when I get here. I take my time weeding my flowers and herb garden that migrated here over the past three years. The garden is constant work this time of year, but there is something grounding about tying up tomato plants and hoeing weeds. The horses seem to enjoy my visits with them and don’t mind my picking their daisies.
Yes, I drag my ever present smart phone and computer with me to The Farm, but I use them differently. I’m much more focused here. I don’t have six browser windows open at once, jumping back and forth between them. I open one for some research and the software I need for a job. I don’t check social media constantly here. Why I do it at home, I don’t know. All I do know is that what I accomplish here is much more fulfilling and concentrated. Most of us don’t realize how much our environment affects how and what we do.
To wrap this post up, I would like to let you know that I just took the dogs out for their night business. Lightening bugs. I have missed lightening bugs. You don’t see them much where I live. Bats. I have not missed bats!
Pencils, Paint & Paper 