Completely uninspired, I stood in the center of my kitchen gazing out into the great room. It’s all so… boring. Sure, it looks good, it is definitely functional, but it is rather dull from an exhilarating point of view, I mused. Nothing screams out curiosity, fun or excitement. Instead, it just whispers of grounded, steady and quiet elegance.
In Feng Shui, it is said that a home is a reflection of the self. Though, I love the way it looks, and it has taken me years to get it exactly the way I envisioned it, still, is it exactly the way I wanted it? Now that the aesthetic is mostly done, I can truly see how it is a reflection of my life. I am grounded and steady, with an appreciation for beauty. But there definitely no fun lately. Creative, yes. Able to create beauty, yes. A sense of or order, yes. But fun… Not so much.
And that seems to be just what my life is missing. Fun, curiosity and a sense of purpose. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about purpose, so much so, that lately it has become like a full-time job. But finding purpose shouldn’t be a full-time job. Instead it should be more like a scavenger hunt, filled with curiosity, excitement and fun.
According to the Oxford dictionary curiosity is; 1 – a strong desire to know or learn something, 2 – a strong or unusual object or fact.
I am constantly on the lookout for learning new things, but predictably, it always seems to be much of the same subject matter. Psychology, Feng Shui and Nine Star Ki. Though, I have recently started to develop a genuine interest in Art History. However, art is not necessarily a new theme for me. When I was younger, I loved art, in fact, I eventually pursued a degree in graphic arts. Though I never really did much with it, or any kind of art for that matter.
My husband and daughter have no problem with curiosity. It just seems to flow out of their veins, especially when they have a desire to learn something new. They will happily dive in to whatever strikes their interest. In fact, just last weekend my husband wanted to go visits a local museum in Manchester, simply because he had never heard about it before, and just wanted to go check it out. However, I was not particularly interested in going, but to humor him, I went along.
But I did have a good time. I might even say it bordered on, dare I say it, “fun!” Walking around looking at all of the painting and sculptures while making connections to the art history podcast I’ve been listening to, was surprisingly enjoyable. As we concluded our visit in the gift shop of the museum, I found myself attracted by all the art supplies lining the shelves in the back of the shop. “Do you want to buy something,” my husband asked? “No,” I replied, “I don’t need anything, I have all this stuff at home in the basement.”
As we made our way to the car, I couldn’t stop thinking about all those paints, canvases and brushes, because secretly I did want to buy something. And after we got home, it stayed with me. I kept thinking about it all week. I journaled about it, “where has the fun in my life gone,” I thought? Where is the the curiosity? I wrote on the blank pages, seeking some inspirational answers.
But then as I stood there in the kitchen, it suddenly hit me. Exactly. Where IS the curiosity, the fun in my life. I don’t see it anywhere in this house! It is all so orderly and functional and predictable. I needed to do something different.
Just as with the second definition of curiosity, perhaps what I needed was “a strong or unusual object.” A reminder, a focal point of Curiosity. Something that would inspire me to get creative, to have fun, and to stop the endless predictability.
Knowing that something needed to shift, I cleared out a tiny corner in a cabinet next to the kitchen table and descended the steps to the basement to find the art supplies that had been hidden away in a dusty, cobweb filled corner. I returned with a few water color paints, some paper and a couple of brushes and gently tucked them into the cabinet with the aim to inspire more curiosity.
In Feng Shui terms, I set the intention to gently lean into finding new purpose and having some fun. Though, I can’t predict what will happen, and I’ve certainly not started painting like crazy, every afternoon at 2:00pm (that would be a little too predictable), that is just how the beauty and mystery of Feng Shui and spacial alchemy works. You set the intention, you change or add something new and then you wait and see what happens. Of course, I don’t mean to suggests that I wont “do” something too, like paint, or try to be more fun and creative. But simply that I have set the intention, given myself a nudge and now I’ll wait to see what the universe has to say about it. Stay tuned!
Elemental Energies 