This is a follow up to Heavy Metal Detox - Part 1. Start there, if you missed it earlier.
I am sitting with my laptop, in the downstairs bathroom, my feet on the floor, my butt and back supported by a hammock that Clare installed here, recently.
Aside from being a mere (second) ‘bath’room that we aren’t using as much as we’d like to, due to temporarily not having a functioning hot water system ( more on that in Slow Living - DIY Bath Water Heating ) , this room is also serving as a possible art room/painting room, since a couple of days.
In fact, since yesterday (?)
I've lost track of time,
there are 3 painting easels in there. And – as is the case in most rooms in this house - there are several paintings of Clare that brighten up the room and contrast the whiteness of the walls.
Just before I started writing this, I decided that I should try to actually treat this room as more of a creative room, even more since I have struggled with my creativity and finding making time and space for it, for quite a while now.
So far, it’s just writing, but I start to feel an increasing urge to also get my fingers dirty, playing with paint and the like.
Clare has been consistently (albeit not as consistently as she would like it to be... ) churning out Needle work projects. In fact, she just posted her latest weekly update here: Needlework, chimney closing and fancy new dancing trousers and seems to have no problem with sewing away at her latest fabrics wherever she is: whether it’s in the bedroom, sitting next to me while we watch a movie or series, at the kitchen table, on the balcony, in a café or in her recently installed dedicated space Her new sewing atelier, a room that was our bedroom up till recently, it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference to her. She is quite the master at consistency and focus, to say the least and, more importantly, really needs her creative projects to stay sane ( and understands that/knows herself and thus knows (better than) to (not) prioritize them ).
I can’t say the same about me. Or, at least, not now.
I will get there, in due time.
It’s fair to say that the last handful of days have been quite the emotional rollercoaster. But, in all honesty, that is quite normal for me, no matter how uncomfortable it might seem, at times.
The fact that we have super intense nights with interrupted sleep and some seriously extreme dreaming plays a part in that.
Yesterday, Clare upped her dosage of the remedy quite a bit and I did the same, the day before.
I find it hard to say how much it’s doing for me, so far, health wise, but it sure seems to have a strong ( seemingly positive ) effect on Clare, although I leave it up to her to share (more) about that whenever she feels ready.
Long story short, it appears to have more of an emotional effect on me and more of a physical effect on Clare.
I just went up to the kitchen to get some food and found Clare with a nice surprise.
It wasn't food – although she is making a special kind of emergency snack right now – but improved boxer shorts.
I
This isn’t the first time that she made boxers for me, nor the second, but it’s a different kind of project.
Let’s say that she added some extra space to a pair of polkadot boxers that she discovered yesterday. The idea was that, for a change, I don’t feel like I’m being made infertile while wearing a pair of boxer shorts. Most of them are way too tight and tend to creep up.
Let’s see if this makes a difference.
Anyhow, I just wanted to log in, to let you all know that we are still detoxing and that it’s quite the experience.
There’s a lot more that I could share – and that Clare might talk about too in the near future - but suffice to say that we’re not regretting having started on this journey and that we still have a lot of work to do.
It sure helps that we’re both people who are always trying to improve and are aiming to become better versions of ourselves, no matter how uncomfortable this might feel, at times.
Hopefully, one of these days, I will actually be able to share some of my actual creative work with you, once again. Up till that time, though, you will have to make do with Clare’s creative projects ( make sure to follow her blog if you aren’t already doing so ) and my/our updates on our life, including home improvement projects to prepare this house for it’s future sale.
And in case you didn’t know, it’s already listed/ up for sale. More on that in Arthouse For Sale
TO BE CONVINUED...