Seneca, A New Bar of Soap, and Dreams of Barcelona

I will be spritzing this on later this morning.

After I use this.

These will be waiting for me.

I cleaned my workspace this weekend. Yep. It was either that or call the National Geographic to send an expedition in. It was not a pretty sight. More like an archealogical dig. Organized chaos, heading way toward claustrophobic crisis. My space is small, but I uncovered a few things I thought had gone the way of missing socks. I don't even have that much here. Yet, there are a few mysterious disappearances. I suspect gremlins. Or that "in the zone absent minded right brain" of mine. They behave very much the same at times.

"Our main business is not to see what is dimly in the distance, but to do what lies directly at hand. "

Seneca didn't say that. Nope. He may have advised Nero on many things, but on getting it done, I am not so sure. I am pretty sure Nero had staff for that.

"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness."

That Seneca did say. Considering his life and especially his death, I'm saying he knew what he was talking about. These two quotations are both on a 3" x 5" card that I rediscovered in a folder as I was tidying up. Thomas Carlyle is good for the first little find. Underneath that quotation from Seneca the card reads, "But part of the roughness is to do all the mundane things you know you'll hire somebody else to do once you achieve your dreams." Those lines I picked up long ago because at the time my studio was a mess. I needed some way to figure out how to wear all the hats of my profession and still get everything done. I laughed when I saw those words again. They made me smile and dig in.

Studio life is demanding. Lots of different pulls. Sometimes the rewards are a little slower than we'd like. But today, my table is clean and my desk top is neat. It's time to start fresh. In a sec, I am going to peel the wrapper off that peppermint soap and place it in the soap dish in the shower. When I was a kid, getting firsts on a fresh bar of soap was a small pleasure I loved. I had a brother, and later a sister and another brother, or the aliens, as I like to call them. Secretly I am an only child. Just ask my sister. Today, the fresh soap is mine, all mine. To me it makes all things bright and fresh. Ahh, peppermint this time. I just bought it yesterday with fresh strawberries and I have mangoes in the fridge. Hm. Nice day shaping up.

I uncovered something else in all the tidying up. I uncovered a hibernating dream. Barcelona. I had forgotten that I really would like to go to Barcelona to paint and take in all the sights. I love Miro's work. I must see Picasso's Guernica as well. So my Catalan dream has surfaced. Those pencils, they could help with that. That clean desk, that shining work surface, and all the small treasures of ideas that I uncovered, can they get me there? I think it is funny that the soap I chose is pure Castile. Castilian, Catalan, Can I go? Maybe I should brush up on a little Spanish? Hm. How do you say mango, I wonder.)

My rough road, my path of creative life, is strewn with obstacles. We all have them, rocks and pebbles, boulders at times. Which one will I let stop me?I haven't found it yet. Some are just larger than others. May take a little longer. And some can be tossed aside with just a little work...3 MIT's ( Most Important Tasks) at a time....yes...it is Organizing Monday.

Hmm. A little Spanish beat and I 'll be ready to tackle my 3 MIT's for today.

Yep. That'll do it. Now for the peppermint before I dig back in. I can hear that music playing. Barcelona, how could I forget? Grab a dream, a task and dance along.