Balancing on Technology

For some unknown reason I opened my computer this morning and all my Outlook mail was gone??  It was like it had just been installed .. no accounts, no settings ... everything just gone!!...  easy fixed?  well no!  How often do we set up the accounts etc for our mail?  hmmm not often enough. After some time trying to set it up I think I've done all the right things but it's still not working properly sigh!!

It makes me realise how much I rely on my computer and phone!!  I have. I guess, embraced technology as it's come along and made it work for me but when it doesn't work ...  :)

But am I to blame?  Am I so helpless that I can't live without the technology?

Of course not...  I actually miss my hand written diary..  I love putting pen to paper.. Stationery stores are my favorite shopping places.   BUT the world expects me now to be accessible on Google, Facebook, via text, and email ... and the world expects me to answer immediately.  I am expected to know where everyone is at any time, and where I'm supposed to be.. so instead of a pretty wall calendar with written entries... Google calendar, iCal are shared at work, at home .... and it goes on....

I'd like to try to create some balance between the desire I have for using a pen and paper to record things and the sense I see in using the on-line options for scheduling and communication.  Hmmmmmm ... I will need to think on this one!!

Balancing the clutter

3 days ago the skip on the front lawn was empty... today it's full... and all three cars have a roof over their head!!!

 For some that may seem normal or reasonable but for this household it is a unique experience... With 8 people living in our home, the build up of clutter and possessions is constant and seemingly endless.  Yet for me, the freedom and lightness I feel when things are ordered and uncluttered is life changing.  The weight of disorder lifted, I am free to think, to dream and plan for creativity because there is no longer that constraint of the sorting and discarding that's screaming at me.

I spent today sorting through our 'study' - a room that is the catch all for almost everything.   There is a long way to go but it's a good feeling to have uncluttered and sorted even a little bit.  Tomorrow piles of paperwork :)

So where is my balance in all of this?... it's finding the harmony between being tidy and organised and the desire to move on to that next exciting project.  I guess if I concentrate on being balanced in this way the projects will be much more rewarding; being less hampered by the clutter.

To stop the balancing act

Yesterday, I stumbled across a web site that suggested finding a single word.. a word that would become the daily inspiration for the next year.  Wow!! I thought, so much easier than the list of new year's resolutions I could write and then promptly break :) 

Has anyone else noticed the number of ads for weight loss and fitness programs there are around at the moment?  So this year I'm not going to make a list...  I have found my WORD!!

During the night, at some ridiculously late hour (or is it early hour?) when my mind wouldn't stop and I was tossing and turning, my word for 2014 entered my mind... one of those God moments I think because this word seems so right... and one I can't imagine I would have thought of without His prompting.

So the word to inspire my days this year is:  BALANCE

At this point I'm not sure what that might mean...

I searched the freedictionary site and found some definitions.. that might be the starting point...

But tonight I want to say what I hope it won't mean...   the phrase 'balancing act' is a very apt description of my 2013... too much doing ... not enough being and breathing and sharing with those who are important... simply juggling my time and energy between so so many things.

So this year, my prayer and my inspiration is for Balance without the act...