Tag: ideas

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Sometimes Plans Hover For A While, Waiting …

carolyncordon

Waiting for what? That’s what I need to find out, then once I work it out, it will happen. the world the whole wide world is out there, waiting for me to get moving, and bring my ‘Thing’ out, where they can see it, do it, experience it, enjoy it, then tell everyone they know about it!

Well that’s a brief look at what my most recent plan is, or the biggest one of them anyway. I have lots of plans, if you include brief thoughts that seem to me to be good things to have a go at doing, plans.

Oh, I know that’s not a plan, it’s something much smaller than a plan, and less worthy. Plans are big, and they have bold letters, and paragraphs. Sometimes they might have numbers and graphs in them, and quotes from worthy people,

Plans set things out in ways that may seem logical, and come to possible conclusions even before the plan is even enacted, Wow!

Hovering plans like I’m on about here may have some of those things, but mine rarely have numbers or graphs, I’m more of an ideas person, working with words, not numbers. Numbers and I have never been Besties.

I can do simple math, but if I’d need a calculator to get the math done, I’m just not interested. I can write far better than I can calculate, I’ve always been that way, and probably always will be. At my age, more than half way through my likely lifetime, I’ll keep on with my plans that don’t need numbers done.

I took this photo this morning, because it looked like an owl, and I like owls. And I have a fascination in seeing living things in inanimate things.

See that photograph there, I took that photo not only because I like such things, but I also had a kind of nano plan that I may use the photo in something else, something bigger than just one slightly quirky photo.

I don’t know anything much more about that little mini plan, but it could quite likely end up in a book, with other such photos, and some words written by me, and possibly with quotes from others who’ve looked at and thought about things like I’m thinking about now.

I love the way the ideas come out of my head and onto the page as I write about them like this. And just because I had no idea about putting that photo in this article when I started, I that doesn’t matter, because, well it’s interesting isn’t it, looking at the thought practises of others? I think it is anyway, and with luck, you think so too!

Going back to how this started, the biggest plan I have at the moment is the one I’ve been working on for well over a year now, the one that possible will also be with me for the rest of my lifetime, and that is the Redbanks Rust & Found Art Installation.

I created this from bits of rusty and/or metal things, then put them on the fence of our place (asking my husband whether he minded, of course). He didn’t mind so I went on putting things on our fence, until there were, by my reckoning, over 400 individual items on the fence. Oops that’s a number, so obviously I can do numbers if they’re relevant to what I’m thinking a lot about!

So once I had that number of different things, I was thinking about what I was doing, and some thoughts became ideas, then some of those ideas solidified into contexts, and it was obvious I’d taken a step up from creating and had begun actually curating this thing. That’s when I named what I was doing, and now, there are (look out, a bigger number coming) now there are around 700 individual items on display at this Art Installation.

And I’m even thinking of getting students involved and having them actually count how many things there are, and separate the number into the types of things that are there. There are vehicle related, food preparation related, farming related, tools related, and probably a ‘what the heck is that’ related section as well.

This thing is a much bigger thing that the owl-looking photo, and I am proud of that fact!

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Thinking About What To Write About Next …

carolyncordon

My mind is filled with so many ideas, it’s difficult to settle down to actually write anything, sometimes, like right now!
I had a fabulous idea to write about a plant that’s going well in our garden, making it a combination of giving information about herbs, and also including poetry, which is a very much favoured way to write for me.

This new plant has flowered, and I’ve noticed the bees around the place are very much attracted to the sweet little flowers that grow on this plant, which is new to me, having been icluded in a seed mix to plant out ro attract butterflies, and as I’ve noticed, also bees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borage

The plant is borage, and if you click on the link, you’ll see the lovely little blue flowers, and large leaves.

What I wanted to do, and may still do, is to write a bit about Borage, and how it came to be growing in our garden, and then post an Acrostic poem using “B O R A G E” as the starting letters of a six line poem about this delightful new plant …

So that’s one thing, but I also possibly could be writing more of the Cosy Murder Mystery Novel I’m possibly more that half way through, but have been more or less ignoring for far too long. I’ve also been ignoring this website of mine, even though I actually love writing and connecting with other people online!

And of course there are the other things on this website of mine, which is relatively new to me, and I’m not really sure about how to use effectively … I haven’t been loving it, so have been ignoring it, which anyone who comes here may realise.

The image above is definitely NOT what I wanted to post here, which proves how much I still need to learn about how to use this website! I’d actually taken that photograph for something else entirely, the monthly newsletter I create and distribute in my local town, Mallala.

The photo was of one of the entertainments at the 2025 Mallala Christmas Street Party, which curiously takes place mostly at the local oval, rather that the street …

Anyway, enough of this, it’s time to move on to other things now, and I promise I’ll be back again soon, as long as I manage to actually manage to get here again! Haha, at least my sense of humour is still working!

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Life Is What You Make It!

carolyncordon

Apparently Eleanor Roosevelt said that. And itsn’t that so true? You sit back and laze, never lifting a finger to do for than you absolutely, and you life comes to not that much at all, but if you do as much as you can at your job, or sport, or whatever it is that lights you up with hope and thoughts of what you can achieve, you’re much more likely to make an excellent life for yourself.

If you have ideas, run with them you can succeed, maybe not hte first time, but it you learn from what didn’t work the first time, and try something else, and better, until it works, woohoo, you’ve made it, you hero!

At the moment, I’m living a great life and I’m doing my very best to go on living a great life! I’m active, both physically and mentally, and in my community. I make plans and work on them, some of them go better than others do, but they’re all things that keep me positive, and doing ‘stuff’!

Sitting around doing nothing? Well it may look like I’m doing that sometimes, but often the reality is that I’m giving myself some ‘ME’ time, to refresh myself, ready for the next thing I’m going to do. Sure I have a novel I’m ‘writing’ that looks like it may never be published, but I’m thinking about it, on some of those ‘ME’ times, and I do in fact write a bit more of it regularly.

Just because ‘regularly’ means once a week, for twenty minutes, well, so be it. My favoured genres for writing are for short pieces, not novels. And every time I write something, anything, and send it out into the world, I can improve what I do, in terms of quality, audience reach, money making (haha what a joke miniscule amounts!), and enjoyment for myself as well.

I love to write, I’ve been doing it for some of my childhood and much of my adult life. I have in fact written a novel, which may one day be brushed off, edited and sent off to a publisher! That’s not one of the items of things to do this year, but next year, maybe it will make that list!

This year I decided to begin something possibly bigger than I’ve done before, in terms of public events and community connection. I decided I was going to create an Art Installation! Me! What did I know about such things? Not a thing, I don’t even have an Arts degree!

But I do have a creative mind, and I have many, many thoughts building into ideas. And the ‘Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation’ is one such thought that turned into an idea, and is now an Art Installation being created! In fact I’ve more or less finished the main part of the creation aspect of this Installation, and I’m getting more into the curation side of things.

This morning I do some of that curation aspect – I had some more items to be put out on display, so I went to the Art Installation (which is actually my Rusty front fence), to place those items on display. While I was there, I decided to move some previously place items to better display them, in less cramped spaces.

Then I completed some work I’d begun during the week, to better display one particular small type of piece (beer bottle caps). I continued looking at what I’d alreadty done over the months since this project started, and realised one item I’m quite proud of having on display, wasn’t in a good enough space, so I moved it so it could attract more attention.

And now, much of hte space that this Art Installation is in, is more or less filled, in that there is something on display, at least every two metres along the front fence. That areas around each item will continue to be filled, not to crowding, but in ways to show what is there, possibly for the rest of my life!

You see, these display items, yes they were found, most of them, and mostly found while walking our dog! So this Art Installation is keeping both my body and my mind active. And the really exciting part is that this Art Installation is going to have it’s Official Opening on the 5th of May this year, by the Adelaide Plains Mayor!

Redbanks, where I live, and so where this Art Installation is, is a part of the Adeliade Plains Council region. There not a lot goin gon there, not that can be seen by others, there are no open shops and the only public building is the Redbanks Hall, which has fallen into disrepair.

If I can draw attention to this township via the Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation, perhaps that might bring the Redbanks Community together, and be a further impetus to get that old hall (built in 1935, I think), back up and going as a regular meeting place for the residents of Redbanks, and others from around the place!

It may be not all people living here would be as keen on this idea as I am, but it may be that some of theme definitely are! I’m going to put out a notice in letterboxes in the township soon looking for responses concerning all of this, and we’ll see what happens. It may fall flat, and not have anyone else interested in it, there may be people who hate the idea, and want a quiet like, not people from elsewhere looking around here.

But it may become a thing the residents of the township of Redbanks can be proud of, and it could be the thing that finally brings us all together, and the whole of our township reaches out, and becomes more than just somewhere to go home to after work, and more or less ignoring anyone else living there.

There are already a couple of other places in Redbanks that have displays in their front yards, and they look great, I would love it if other Redbanks residents may be keen to put on more of a show as well, and we could all one day get together to look around at what others have done that they’re proud to show off to others!

At the moment, Redbanks is a township, but it doesn’t feel like a community. I want it to be a great community that cares about making all of our township shine with pride of our achievements! An Anzac day display in the front yard – that’s fantastic, a front yard display of old farming equipment, wonderful! An Art Installation made up of Rusty and Found objects, great!

Getting together and doing things, that’s what makes community. I hope I can help get this kind of thing happening again in Redbanks, starting when all of the township, and others, will be invited to the Grand Opening of the Redbanks Rust & Found Art Installation!

inspiration, meaning in life

When Initial Enthusiasm Wanes …

carolyncordon

Creative people – writers, visual artists, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers, all of us, get a burst of energy, and their whole life can focus on their new fantastic thing. Other people hear about their idea, and give them positive feedback, and the creative one keeps on going, creative fire setting their mind alight!

That’s how it is for me, and on looking at my friends, and other creative people, it looks like it happens for others that way too. Their work is their life, their life is there work, as much as it possible. Of course, some aspects of ‘normal’ life have to go on, but the creative person’s being is focused on their bright and shining ‘thing’.

This state can last for the whole of a project, if things are going well, you’re meeting your goals, and is the best it can be. This is a great thing, if it happens, but the truth is that enthusiasm can blaze and then splutter, and finally going out, like a candle in the wind of indifference. If you think your ‘thing’ is a good one to have happen, you’ll need to work to help keep it going, and the keep your interest in it happening.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/red-lighted-candle-220618/

Find the resources you need to top up your enthusiasm – I found – How to Keep Your Enthusiasm When You Hit a Slump, today, and it’s helping for sure. Keeping the initial idea, the overwhelming reason, and purpose of the idea in mind is paramount, to keep that keen desire to get that great thing done, and done as well as you possibly can. If the idea doesn’t feel like an important thing to anyone else, it can be difficult to keep going.

But there was a reason why you started out with your big thing, to help you keep on track with it, focus on:

what that thing was,

why it’s important,

how it helps others, and

why it matters in the great scheme of things.

If you can create a list of these reasons, and the writing and reading again of that list fires you up again, and sparks that enthusiasm up again, that’s great. Keep the list for those times when you may need it, when enthusiasm wanes.

You can then get back to your idea, with the fire burning bright again, knowing why you are putting your effort in, and that it is a good thing to put your energy into. Print out your list, perhaps, to glance at when you begin back at that task, and it can help keep the fire burning bright.

On the other hand, if, on looking at your idea, you fail to get any more than a slight flicker of interest happening, then it’s probably good to put that idea aside. It may have been a good thing at a particular time, but that time is gone now, or maybe the time is yet to come. So, if the time isn’t right now, it isn’t the thing for you to spend all of your energy on. Keep the idea on the back burner, peek at it now and then perhaps, but don’t give it your whole being.

Different people have their own things that spark the interest in them, for the important things in life, that make them feel what they do is relevant, and worth doing. If you have those things, or that one overwhelming thing, it can help make you feel your life matters, and that feeling is a wonderful thing to have. It helps you get up in the morning, it helps you to get through difficult times, it gives you reason for being. It is the clue to tell you the answer to the big question ‘Why you are here?’

So remember the thing that means the most to you, and work hard to maintain the enthusiasm, but when that flame flickers, shield it from the wind, and remember that what you are doing is important. Look at your list again, remember the Why?, rekindle the fire, and go!

Words and ideas are my thing, the candle that keeps me alive to life!

It isn’t a failure, to feel this waning happening, it is only a failure if you don’t try to get the enthusiasm fanned, and burning bright again!

writing prompts

Fab Feb Writing Prompts – Day Six

carolyncordon

It’s an important word, ‘After’. After what? Afterwards, after dinner, after school is over, after you’ve left that job you hate, or been sacked from one you loved, after the divorce. 

Today’s writing primpt is that word –      After

There are so many things in life that come along after … After you think about this new word prompt, I hope you’ll find some great ideas to write about! After this, that and the other …

After I realise I said something stupid, that can be an embarrassing thing, but sometimes looking at it and treating it with humour can halt the afterburn! Afterthoughts, oh the wisdom of our afterthoughts …

Further thoughts on what happens after – after the kids start school, move out of home, find someone they love, get married, have children. What about after we die – what happes then, and what will happen to us after we age and become frail …

Some of these things are good, some are not so good, some can be terrible. But they’re all good things to think further on, and to write about. How about thinking about after the operation, after you move home, move to the country, or to the city? 

Big things might happen after … or maybe things stop happening after, and how might that feel? 

So that’s today’s writing prompt, AFTER!