Order and Organizing! O in A-Z Word Challenge
I'm not the most organized person. I wish cleaning out my space charged me up like other people, like my husband. The difference between us has caused some friction over the years. For Father's Day instead of buying him something, we lightened the load by going through the laundry room cupboards, our books, and the storage shed with the old paint cans etc. It was so appreciated, I think I'm going to clean something out and get rid of unused stuff every year for his holiday.
"Order is the shape upon which beauty depends."
Pearl S. Buck
Actually, I want to go through other cupboards, nooks and crannies, and even the studio (again.) Of all the places where it is the hardest for me, it is definitely the studio. So many things have those two "P" words I use too often: possibilities and potential, which make it challenging for me to discern what to keep and what to toss.
Even with that challenge, I am determined to live out my word of the year LIGHT by lightening the load.
Scripture
Taking steps toward order and beauty is a biblical pursuit as well. Isaiah 45:8 NOG says:
"Yahweh, heaven's Creator, who alone is God, He created the earth, shaped it, and established it all by Himself. He made it fit and orderly and beautiful for its inhabitants."
Important Questions to Help Organize
Here are the questions I am asking myself as I am look at and pick up each item:
Does this bring me joy and beauty?
Do I use this?
When going through books, my personal weakness, I ask myself:
Will I read this again?
If I cannot answer "Yes" to any of these questions, it needs to go.
"We live in a beautiful and orderly world,
not in a chaos without norms,
even though this is how it sometimes appears."
M.C. Escher
The Golden Ratio
The pages shown here were done according to the Golden Ratio, also called Divine Proportion and represented by the Greek letter Phi. It is a proportion of 1 to 1.618.... and if found throughout nature, including plants, growth cycles and the human body. It is a concept that relates the parts to the whole in such a way that the whole is to the larger part in the exact same proportion that the larger part is the smaller part. This creates beauty and harmony.
I made a whole journal about it. While I was making it I said to my daughter, "If I had to marry a math concept, I'd marry the Golden Ratio." She said, "Mom, you just went to far." (Teehee) Seriously though, whenever I get stuck with layout, design or need inspiration for where to put things in my art, I rely on the Golden Ratio.Here are a few pages of my Golden Ratio journal:
Art tends toward balance, order, judgment of relative values,the laws of growth, the economy of living –very good things for anyone to be interested in.
Robert Henri
Living Your Word 2019 Opportunity
Bernice Hopper, and Mary Brack, and I share insights through blog posts for keeping an Everyday Calendar Journal. We will be using the journal to record events, experiences and relationships; to explore our word’s meaning in visual and fun ways. If you would like to connect with others in creative way about organizing your word, your ideas, thoughts, prayers, events, or your projects all in one place, you are invited to join our Facebook group: Everyday Journals ~ Living Your Word of the Year.URL for Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/
URLs for Instagram: #livingyourword2019
CHECK OUT THE BLOGS:
Bernice: https://newlycreative.com
Mary: www.foundonbrighton.com
Valerie: https://valeriesjodin.com/blog/ this one :-)