{"id":257,"date":"2013-03-02T21:44:59","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T02:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/50.87.217.193\/blog\/empty-time"},"modified":"2015-03-07T00:08:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T00:08:46","slug":"empty-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/empty-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Empty Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"DSCN2171\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It's March, and in my book that means it's (almost!) Spring. Even though we have
\nseveral inches of crusty snow covering our yard, I am already in that
\nI-survived-another-winter mindset, and I'm thinking about planting flowers,
\ngiving away the kids' outgrown clothes, and CLEANING MY STUDIO!<\/p>\n

My
\nproblem – and I know many of you have the same problem – is that there is too
\nmuch of everything in my house, my car, and my studio. I am not a compulsive
\npurger, and I am not a hoarder. Ok I admit I am a collector but in the way most
\ncreative people are collectors. I like to have lots of pretty things to inspire
\nme. I need all of my art and sewing supplies where I can see them. I really need
\nto go through that stack of magazines before I give them away. I have old
\nfabrics I want to donate but I need time to go through them and keep a few for
\nsentimental reasons. Sigh…<\/p>\n

Last weekend I really got a kick out of Amy
\nButler's presentation at QuiltCon. She also collects colorful interesting things
\nwherever she goes, and then arranges them into themed groupings of eye candy,
\nbut she makes it look like a photo spread in a home dec magazine. Of course with
\nsome primping and selective editing with photography, one can make almost any
\nroom look like a scene from a glossy magazine… if you can get your kids to
\nstay out of the room for a day.<\/p>\n

These days, there really is too much of
\nEVERYTHING. Too many emails, too many TV channels, too much information online
\nthan one could ever hope to process in a lifetime. It is the blessing and the
\nscourge of the creative soul. We are finding our way in this new reality –
\nbecause even "living a simple life" is a relative term. I never feel that I have
\nmastered this balancing act, but I feel that I've learned how to have reasonably
\ngood boundaries so I can be fairly productive and efficient. <\/p>\n

My trick –
\nis to have a chunk of time every day when I pretend I have nothing else to do.
\nThis is my Empty Time. I meditate, I draw, I sit in a garden and write in a
\njournal, I take a long bath listening to classical or jazz music. If I didn't do
\nthis, I would literally go nuts. <\/p>\n

Cleaning my studio a couple times a
\nyear is also Empty Time. I am creating a blank space upon which to project my
\nnext set of ideas. It can be a very spiritual experience for me, because when I
\nmake the space, the ideas and inspiration come. Sometimes it just takes my
\nbreath away.<\/p>\n

I'll be in my studio this week!<\/p>\nShare Post:<\/strong>
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It's March, and in my book that means it's (almost!) Spring. Even though we have several inches of crusty snow covering our yard, I am already in that I-survived-another-winter mindset, and I'm thinking about planting flowers, giving away the kids' … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creativity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1220,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions\/1220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}