Hello, My friends.
This week has been a busy one. Hubby and I began to remodel our kitchen.
Our kitchen has always been on the remodel list, it is a 1950’s original walk through, narrow kitchen. When we purchased this house the kitchen was painted a turquoise green, the window frame and cupboard surrounds were a darker turquoise green than the cupboards and walls. It looked hideous, The floor covering was an orange mosaic tile style vinyl, possibly from the 1970’s era. The first thing hubby did after moving in was to paint the window frames white, and the walls and cupboard doors a light grey, this made the room bearable to be in.
All the time we have lived in this home, I’ve been thinking and considering how I want the kitchen to look, I considered removing a wall to include the lounge, and make it an open living space. This wall happens to be load bearing, which means it’ll need a large dose of capital, we scrubbed that idea- more dollars than we wanted to invest.
The kitchen had a built in pantry which didn’t suit our needs, and a short bench with cupboards above. The fridge lived in the dining area, as there was no space in the kitchen for it. After much humming and hawing, we made a decision. We picked up our tools and began removing the wall units and benches, we dismantled the pantry and made a small space instantly bigger. We cleaned up the mess, moved the fridge, put back the benches and all of a sudden the kitchen plan came together. Is it finished? No! Do we have a better idea of what we want? Definitely.
Sometimes our lives are like my kitchen, the lay out is all wrong, the colour is hideous. it just isn’t working the way we want it to, or the way it used to.
We give our lives a lick of paint, so to speak, to make it more tolerable. We go about our daily routines, making do, unhappy with the functionality of the space that is us.
A long time ago, I learned a valuable lesson through the school of hard knocks. The lesson being, what I think will cost a lot of money, or take a lot of time, or is too hard. Really isn’t. It’s what I have believed to be true. I have learnt to use a timer to take the “I can’t start this project, it’s going to take too long.” thought from inaction to beginning. I discovered I could do anything for fifteen, thirty or sixty minutes. Set the timer and begin. When the timer goes off, tidy up and stop. Look at what has been accomplished that wouldn’t have been. I’ve gardened this way, did the house work, revamped rooms, cleaned the house from floor to ceiling and room by room, studied while I worked. These beliefs were stopping me from doing what needed to be done. I kept putting up with broken things, and unfinished things, believing they would cost more money than I had to repair or replace them. That was a lie, once I did the research and priced up the repair, the item would cost surprisingly less than my mind had led me to believe. I would set the goal and the intention to mend or discard the broken things, to complete the work that had been started, and somehow, what I needed arrived, I juggled the finances to make the money available, I reshuffled my time constraints to make space available to do what needed doing. The people with the know how that I needed would appear to guide me. What I was seeking would find me.
What are you putting up with in your life?
What is dragging you down?
What gives you that sinking feeling every time you walk past it?
Our kitchen work has begun, will it be finished next week? I’d say not, however, we will work on it consistently over the next few months to get it where we want it.
What one area in your life do you want to make a change in?
Do you want to be more consistent? Do you want more love? Do you want more inner peace? What about a new job, or career? Do you want to be a published author, telling and writing your story? Do you want to purchase a new lounge suite, you know, the one that every time you see it you go, “I’d love that in my lounge.” Is it beginning to train for a marathon? or Reshaping your body? or Is it that you want to own your own home, or upgrade to your next home? Maybe for you it’s spending more time with your family and friends, or is it travelling to exotic places, or places of historic significance. Maybe you want to live with less clutter, be more organised, find that document you just put down? What ever it is, If you are looking for it, it is looking for you.
Grab a pen and paper, write it down, what ever it is you want, put it on the paper with as much detail as you can muster, put what you want into a tangible format. (Now if that little voice says, ” Oh, it’s not that important, or it’s not a big thing, or I don’t have time right now. Do it anyway.) Read it, does it inspire you? or even frighten you a little? Great! What is one thing you can do towards making it a reality?
If your goal is owning a brand new Mustang, read up on it, learn everything about it, take it for a test drive, smell it, feel it.
If your goal is to travel the world, find someone who has been there or a podcast about the place you want to travel to, talk to a travel agent, get your brochures, open a travel savings account, purchase your luggage. Move towards it and it will move towards you.
If purchasing a new home is your goal, decide what type of home you want, where you would prefer to live, in what area, investigate your financial situation, plan to create a budget to achieve that house.
If you want to be more organised, and have less clutter, begin with 3 boxes, one for rubbish, one for give away and one to put away. Set your timer for 20 mins. Tackle only one draw, or shelf at a time, and sort through every thing in that area. The items either go in one of the three boxes. When the timer goes off, you put the rubbish out in the bin, you donate the give-aways. (Be strong, no take backs.) and the put away items get to be put where you want them to go. There are great resources available to increase these skills, use the library.
Whatever the goal is that you’ve written on your paper, reread it, put it on a small card in your wallet and read it every day, take small steps towards it.
Rumi says, “What you seek, is seeking you.”
I have found that once I begin on a path, the inspiration comes to help me complete the journey. I have to be willing to take a step into the unknown. With my kitchen, I have an idea on how I want it to look, I’ve taken the step into the unknown, in taking what I have apart, now I’m trusting that as I do my research and do the activities I need to do, the kitchen I want will begin to take shape.
Be willing to take a step into the unknown and go after what you really want.
Live your most authentic life, follow what you want one step at a time. Until next time.
Linda Codlin