Send me your motivation...

...because I've lost mine. I have stuff I need to do, but darned if I feel like doing it. I've got a cold, and it's not a bad one, but it's just annoying enough to make me not want to do anything around the house. Help! If my kitchen stays messy one more day, I'm probably going to lose it! I don't have enough counter space to have dirty dishes.

It's Laundry Day

Today, I'm getting miscellaneous chores done around the house. I've got coffee brewing in anticipation of the caffeine fix I'll need to get it all done. On my list of things to do is my favorite chore of all - laundry. Laundry used to be just another never-ending job, but I love it now. Why? Line drying. I used to always throw my clothes in the dryer and leave them there until they were too wrinkly to wear. Then one day, I read a book called Simple Country Wisdom, and in it, the author painted a beautifully romantic picture of doing laundry and hanging it on the line. Now, I've line-dried clothes before, but this book convinced me to try it again. I was hooked. The clothes swaying in the breeze, being outside in the sun - it was magical. Now I look forward to laundry day, and I hang my clothes out as often as I can. It's sort of like a meditative experience for me. I even put up signs in my laundry area that express my feelings about doing laundry. One says, "It all comes out in the wash." The other says, "Sorting out life, one load at a time." It rings true for me, at least. Washing my clothes washes my cares away, and with each load I sort and hang up, I sort out life. It may seem quaint, but I love it.

Living Inside Our Own Minds

There's a thought I have in my head that I've been trying to flesh out in the last few days that I wanted to share with you. Quite a few people in this world, myself included, seem to be living very much apart from others, stuck inside their own heads. I don't mean we're all off in la-la land, daydreaming about winning the lottery, or that sexy coworker, or whatever it is people fantasize about. What I mean is, we all seem to have created a little bubble around ourselves, and regardless of what interactions we have with other people, we tend to stay within the confines of our barriers. We think we know our neighbors, our coworkers, even our own family members, but how much of our "knowledge" is what they really are, and how much of it is based on nothing more than conjecture on our part?

I'll try to clarify with an example. I have been married to my husband for eight years. Before that, we dated for two years, and before that we were classmates and friends for about a year. That makes approximately eleven years that I have interacted with this man on some level or another, yet he continually eludes me when I try to pin him down. I was completely taken by surprise when he told me that he cried the day our daughter was born, because he was proud of me. I never in a lifetime would have expected him to feel that way, let alone shed a tear over it. Another time, I mentioned how in tune he seemed to be with his body. He replied, "Must be the meditation." I then said, "You meditate?!" I have lived with this man for eight years, and I did not know this. I guess I assumed just because I'd never walked in on him in the lotus position, it was something he didn't do. And these are just two examples of hundreds of times I've been taken aback by the depth and complexity of my own husband.

Why? Why didn't I know this about the man that provides for me, that sleeps next to me each night, that helped me create my precious little girl? Much to my dismay, it's because I'm too wrapped up in my own little world to truly see him for what he is. I take him for granted. In my mind, he's the guy who's going through a phase with his crazy, mountain man facial hair; he's the guy who always wants to share what he did on the toilet that day (much to my chagrin); he's the guy who seems to think sexist jokes are a turn-on for me; he's the guy who nods when I talk about my craft projects, but doesn't really care. I paint a two-dimensional picture in my head of what he is, and I imagine that this image is all-encompassing. I'm so wrapped up in my own thoughts, hopes, fears, and ambitions that I actually forget that he is also a human being with thoughts, hopes, fears, and ambitions all his own. It is bad enough that I would dehumanize any person that way, let alone my own husband. Yet I do it over and over again.

I am not the only one. Since I noticed this behavior in myself, I have also observed it in others - people stripping away at the layers of others, and leaving a flimsy, paper-doll effigy in their stead. I wouldn't believe it an exaggeration to say that everyone has done this to someone they know. Why? Part of it is in our nature, I believe. Our brains desire to make sense of the world, and as such, we draw conclusions and make sweeping generalizations about those around us, just so we can file them away in the "understood" category of our minds. What ends up happening in our scramble to understand is that we shed the bits information our brains deem unimportant to the larger picture. We then fill in the blanks with things from our own experiences and preconceived notions. So when Amy knocks at our door, our brain registers that it's "Amy, the crazy vegan," instead of "Amy, the girl who's passionate about preventing cruelty to animals and supporting local economies, so she carefully researched agribusiness corruption; veganism; and local farmers specializing in vegan-friendly produce so that she can better uphold her principles." See? That second-part is a mouthful, but it makes Amy more interesting, even to the point where you may not agree with her, but at least you respect her choices.

So how do we fix this problem of glossing over the people we interact with? Practice. We can pull ourselves out of the bubbles of our own minds if we practice sympathy on a regular basis. We should start seeing people as people again, not as puppets in the plays of our lives. Let's think about how we would feel if others were treating us the way we've been treating them. And let's give them a break, for crying out loud! People make mistakes. Instead of picking them apart, let's let it go. Perhaps the next time we slip up, others will be more forgiving as well.

Works in Progress

I have several projects on the table today. I've recently gotten into the bad habit of starting a new project before I finish an old one, and that has led to quite a few unfinished things cluttering up my space. Today, I am going to be working on a mail sorter that I started several months ago. If nothing else, I want this to get done today. If I have time, I'd like to work some more on my Icon of Shadows-inspired necklace. I do intend to do a little more blogging later, but for now I need to get up and get these things done. Pictures will follow!

Email from Etsy

I just got an email this morning from Etsy concerning some changes they're making in advertising and the like. One of the changes they'll be making is they're giving shop owners the ability to change the name of their shops. I have given it some thought, and I may just be taking advantage of this ability. When I named my shop, I was homesick for South Carolina, and I thought Ashley's Crescent Moon Shop would be a marketable name for me. Later it became Under the Crescent Moon, because I was still working within my AshleysCrescentMoon username, and I thought it felt less "clunky." That's the name I've kept, and it works better than my original name, but I still feel as if it's too obscure. It makes no hints as to what I sell, my personality, or my target market, and I feel that a good business name should point to at least one of those things. I briefly pondered going with "barefoot" something-or-other, because now that I'm back in the South I go barefoot pretty often, but do you know how many shops on Etsy have "barefoot" in the name? There aren't nearly as many shops with "crescent moon" in the name, but there is a shop called Beneath a Crescent Moon, so I'm not original there either. What should my new name be? I'm pretty sure I should change it, but to what?

Chain Letters

*This is also an imported post from September 2006, the days when Myspace reigned over the social media market. However, its message is still relevant and I still feel this way because I STILL get emails like this from friends and family, ALL THE TIME.*

Everyone loves email forwards and myspace bulletins. We pass on jokes, quotes, and stuff to make you think. But nobody really likes chain letters. I'm not sure anyone even really believes, "If you do this your true love will kiss you" or "If you don't pass this on, you will have bad luck for the rest of your life." Yet we keep on passing them on. Why?

One particular type of chain letter that I find especially annoying is the religious chain letter. Mind you, I am a Christian. I love God, and I love good stories that uplift and teach a good Christian moral. I have no problem with these types of emails and bulletins, until I come to the guilt trip that I find inevitably tacked on to each of them. It normally says something like, "If you're not ashamed of God, then pass it on." Or my all-time favorite, "Isn't is sad how it's so easy to forward all your dirty jokes to friends, but when you get a message about God, you're embarrassed to send it?" Thanks, guys. You've just put me right in the middle of a moral dilemma. If I send this to people, they will moan and groan about yet another chain letter, but if I don't send it, then God knows I am "ashamed" of him. Do I share this wonderful message about God, or do I delete it because it has that stupid chain letter addendum?

My general answer to this is to delete these kinds of forwards. Now before you try to run me out of town on a rail, hear me out. I don't forward very many things to begin with, and when I do, I generally only send it to one or two people in my address book. My criteria for whether I forward something or not is:

• Does the message have merit (can you take something valuable from it, like a smile, a laugh, or a good moral)?
• Will the person I am sending this to appreciate it?
• Is it free of stipulations (e.g., "pass this on within 24 hours or you will die a virgin")?

The truth is, when I receive a forward that is religious in nature, I'm much more likely to send it on if it doesn't tell me I should. Call it my rebellious streak if you will. I'll give you an example of what I mean. A few days ago, I received an email that had a "guilt trip" addendum. By the time I got finished reading the addendum, I had already decided that I would delete the message, just because I didn't want anyone I sent it to possibly passing it on simply out of guilt. But yesterday, a friend posted a bulletin with a story that was so touching I cried. I re-posted it for my friends to read without even giving it a second thought. Then I realized that it didn't kill the good feeling I got by guilt-tripping me into passing it on. I was much more willing to share this message than I was the other one, because in the end, it was the message itself and not the addendum that made me re post it. I am also happy to report that this bulletin has been re-posted by my other friends at least three times since I put it up, so the message is getting out there.

Now, I understand what these chain letters with attached guilt trips are saying. They're saying we shouldn't think twice about passing on a good message about God. They're saying that we should be just as inclined to pass on words of Christian inspiration as we are to pass on funny pictures or jokes. However, the message is largely missed because we start passing on things because they tells us to, or because they make us feel like if we don't, we don't love God the way we should. In fact, the ONLY reason we should pass on a message about God is because we WANT to, not because we feel obligated as Christians to do so. We should only pass on messages that touch us, messages that we can feel good about sending to someone else. You can bet that when you pass a message on in sincerity, it will be received better than it would be otherwise.

Email Spam

*This is one of my posts I'm "importing" to this blog. It was originally posted back in April 2007, presumably after I deleted an inbox full of spam. I still get these occasionally, but I have ceased to wonder about them. I guess I'm just jaded. Enjoy!*

Just a little thought I had that I wanted to share with you:

We've all gotten one before - that spam email in our inbox with a subject that doesn't make a single bit of sense. Sometimes it's really, really bad grammar. Other times the words are completely made up. Most of the time they end up straight in my bulk mail folder, and I never even see them before they're deleted. But every now and then, one makes it into my inbox, and I wonder, what's the point of that kind of spam? Does anyone out there actually open one of those when they see it? And if they do, what kind of person would seriously open an email with a subject that looks like it came straight out of "Jabberwocky?" I'm curious about the thought process that would precede someone opening an email with a subject that said, "'Twas brillig and the slithy toves..." I don't know about you guys, but when something like that appears in my inbox, I'm all over that delete button lickety-split.

Note: I mean no discredit to Lewis Carroll by mentioning "Jabberwocky" in comparison with spam emails. It's a good, fun poem, and if any of you haven't read it, you can do so here: www.jabberwocky.com