Passions that hide in plain sight making art in Vermilion Sands

    I have a powerful drive to do right by others and slack off on doing right by myself. It's described as an obliger type by Gretchen Rubin. According to Gretchen, there are four general personality types. In her books and podcast, she offers tactics to make your strengths and weaknesses work for you based on your personality type. I think of her as having a dizzying intellect. She is a lawyer who worked for the SCOTUS and gave it up to pursue writing. What would you give up in your life to pursue your passion? I keep looking out of the corner of my eye, thinking my passion is hiding in plain sight; I only have to look to see it.

    To hack my personality type, I use my drive to do my committed tasks for others to herd my personal tasks out in front. For example, this past Monday, I had a task to do for someone else rather than do it first. So I made a list of things I needed to have done for myself and did them first by setting an afternoon appointment time for the task I was obliged to complete. It was a smashing success. I worked hard to finish my assignments to avoid being late for my appointment to do my obliged task. Had I not forced my self-care to be done first, I would have done my obliged task and slacked off on the rest. It's like the notion that you are never more productive at work than the day before you leave for vacation.  

    When you look at a picture that is two different things, look at it one way, and it's a bird. Look at it again, and it's a lady in a fancy hat? If I can't see the second picture, I turn the picture on its side to get a different perspective in hopes that the shadow picture will jump out at me. No, that trick does not seem to help very often. I still don't see the second image. Trying too hard to see what is obvious must apply the same way when trying to discern my passion.

What am I working on this week?

Plumbing, ugh. Our pipes are steel; someone, in the time before - before, thought that steel plumbing was a great idea. They were so wrong. Now 70 and 100 years later, we are cutting open walls to replace rusted-out steel pipes at $2000 a pop. Note to self. I will splurge on plastic pipes or copper when I build a house. I am not a professional plumber. My opinion is based solely on the Dad in Moon Struck selling a young couple on "Copper!" and my addiction to home improvement shows where remodeled homes snap together with easy connect plastic water lines.

What am I reading this week?

I am continuing with J.D. Ballards Complete Short Stories. Depending on how far the dog drags me around the block, I can do one or two daily. I've noticed many stories are based on sound. Sound as art, weapons, or ghosts. He keeps returning to a place that makes me think of an artist colony like Palm Springs. It's fun to see many stories overlap in this imaginary place called Vermilion Sands.