New beginnings

As I drove up Route One,  from Bolinas, I realized that in a week time, all the fields had grown a good layer of fuzzy young grass, making the whole landscape turn bright green. I mean GREEN!… Happy young cattle, black and shiny and unaware of their destiny, barely ever raise their heads from the bounty while hundreds of birds gather on electric lines along the roadside pastures, frolic in the brambles and dart across the road in front of barreling cars, recklessly, in their quest for new beginnings.

New beginnings indeed… To me, Springtime feels so much more appropriate than the 1st of January to get started on things!  I mean, energetically speaking, it is in the air, nothing one can do about it: it just vibrates in everything alive, coursing in the blood, firing up neurons and making one’s cells hum with expectation.

I was reading an interesting little book, a handful of pages, really, but very significant: “You²” by Price Pritchett (http://www.pritchettnet.com/what-we-do/you2/), which is about personal effectiveness, quantum leaps and fresh perspectives and it said: “…So look for an approach characterized by simplicity, precision, efficiency, neatness. It won’t be as complex as or time consuming as your present struggle. Over all it will be less demanding of your energies and emotions. And it probably will not be familiar to you.” (The whole book, as small as it is, offers sharp tools for transformation and it’s hard to refrain from quoting a lot of it.)

Hhhmmm…Very good I thought, but how do I translate that into my life now? Because I do seek growth, high velocity, quantum leaps in my own evolution, but tools as good as they are, bring results only when we use them…

Well, I was longing very strongly for a way to free some substantial time for myself, to paint and to catch up with my life. Meanwhile business at the gallery is mostly happening on Saturday and Sunday, at this time of the year. Large amount of rains are pouring down, and I already had someone manning the gallery for me on Friday. I put all these parameters together in a virtual tumbler, shook them, and toss them out on the virgin land of open mindedness… Immediately the equation resolved itself in a very simple, easy, efficient solution that made my whole body relax in approval: to open the gallery only on week-ends, longer days, and close it on Friday and Monday until May. Being replaced on Sunday and being myself at the gallery on Saturday was all at once giving me back 6 days per week of personal time and a business open when it truly needs to be.

Simple indeed. But as a matter of fact when we think about growth, most of us have a tendency to do more of the same to get more results. And it is often counter productive. As paradoxical as my choice could seem, it is a beautiful, easy, efficient solution that will result in being able to generate more work where I excel, waste less time where things are slow, and enjoy some personal quality time to recharge my batteries. Meanwhile I do maintain the essential part of my business running smoothly and I am available by appointment to whom it may be of assistance.

Thanks to efficiency teachers. Thanks to all luminaries in self development as well. We can all learn from people who put their genius in finding ways that actually work better, further, easier. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time we need to go somewhere!

Being home, drinking fresh juices and considering my next canvas, I am richer, fuller and more apt to bring the best of me to the world. Reading, listening and following mentors’ wise words has been for me a formidable accelerator, a mean of putting myself deliberately on the edge of my comfort zone and accept that it is where I grow, knowing that it is a natural process, and that I will keep doing it, getting better at it along the way, and enjoying the journey. Mostly enjoying the journey… Even the discomfort bits.

There is an intrinsic joy in growth, an evolutionary force, a rush of the sap, a primal expansion of the whole being that all forms of life surrender to when Springtime comes.
We can choose to squelch it or to run with it, on our way to become our future selves…

Happy Spring everyone!

More later…

green pastures of happiness

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