Inspired by nature

I am inspired by nature.

It's a simple thing, really. Trees, fresh mowed grass, sunlight peeking through a forest (see picture above), a mountain view, climbing a hill in my neighborhood. It's why I love recreating outdoors. I love every part of nature. The sky, the sun, the moon, the earth. What you can do with all of these parts of nature. It's most likely how travel writing became one of my specialties. 

I'm drawn to nature. It's why, during my most difficult moments in life, I turn to nature for her healing effects. It's why I ride a mountain bike. I prefer the mountain bike over the road bike because, on a mountain bike, you're less apt to ride on a busy city street. You're more apt to ride on trail. You're more likely to be riding alone. You're probably going to nearly run into a bush before you'll ever be threatened by the swoosh of a fast-driving automobile. I think my mountain bike's safer. Therefore, you could say I'm comforted by nature. It makes sense to me. How else would have been able to devise a B.I.K.E. program if I didn't find comfort in it. Believe me, my bike rides were the most comforting thing in my life at the time I first discovered their magic. To learn more about that, I urge you to search this site. It might take a while, but it will be worth visiting past posts that highlight the specific benefits of my B.I.K.E. program. 

Whether you have time or not, you might have noticed I'm also inspired to take photographs of nature. I use a lot of them on my blog here, including the one above. I took it when I was staying overnight in Greer, a small town in Arizona's White Mountains. If you ever get a chance to visit, it's a peaceful community, a great place to spend a summer or winter weekend. You can stay in a log cabin with a woodfire stove or a huge stone fireplace. You can hike trails or walk around in snowshoes, depending on the season you stop in. You can relax on big porches that overlook the Little Colorado River. And you can see wildlife: deer, antelope, skunks.

I absolutely adore living in a state where I can spend most days outdoors.

It's refreshing, enlivening, and a really wonderful way to connect with yourself. One of my favorite past-times involves walking or riding my bike alone on an Arizona trail. I'm not competitive. I'm pensive. So I use this time to think about things in general or to contemplate a challenge I'm having at work, or just to consider what my next move might be regarding whatever next project I might be working on or need to focus on in the months ahead. I'm almost always working on long-term projects. It's a rare thing for me to get fast turnaround jobs, though I do those as well. As a project-oriented person, I prefer the long-term task over the shorter ones. And I almost always need nature to help me iron out the details.

What's your relationship with nature?
 

Piles of inspiration

I'm not sure if you can see this or not, but I actually titled, or labeled, this photo Piles To Go Before I Sleep. It seems appropriate, given that this was but one of the piles in my house that's inspired me to clean.

Actually, writing about what inspires me this month really got the organizational juices flowing. I've been thinking about doing this since I completed my travel guide a year ago. It was then when I began piling things up and having no time to put them away. Eventually, the piles took over, and I tried really hard to ignore them. But I found myself just moving to other rooms to get away from them. And guess what? The piles followed me.

They became so hard to miss that I finally had to do something about them.

So I rearranged them.

I don't use that term lightly. I know my bad habit well. My guess is they'll return soon enough--in a different shape and form, with different colors (based on whatever material gets piled wherever the new piles show up). But for now, I've taken them off the furniture, off the floor, off my kitchen table, off the coffee table, off the...Yeah, you get it.

They really have been everywhere--and they were cluttering my thoughts. Not stopping me from writing, mind you, but cluttering the space in my brain that needs room to think about other projects. With piles on the brain, I haven't been working as efficiently as I know I can.

So off they went--into some nifty banker's boxes I found that were still empty, several large plastic bins I've had waiting specifically for this use, and other storage containers.

I've tried to spin my bad habit as being a collector of ephemera. But most people can see right through that.

"Oh, you keep trash?" they might say.

I ignore such insults to my magazines, books, brochures, business cards, fliers, and other wonderful things made of paper. I am a collector, I tell you.

What I'm not is an organizer. If I were, these piles would have a place to go, and I'd know exactly when and where to put them there.

When I daydream about the space, it looks like an entire wall of cubbyholes. Not shoebox-size but the sizes of manuscript boxes, maybe a little wider and deeper. Just enough space to toss in different projects I might be working on, including all the research that goes with them. There are hundreds of these cubby holes on my dream wall--most of them filled, others empty, waiting for new projects.

And all are labeled and alphabetized.

But this is a daydream, and my cubbyhole wall does not exist. In fact, I couldn't afford it. Instead, I have bins and cardboard boxes and baskets and such. And they're now stacked inside my office closet, along a wall, and on top of the shelving unit I do have. The piles have been put away, and I feel good about that.

When I consider how this relates to my BIKE philosophy, I would say it's definitely about being your Best self. It's about taking care of your mental health, feeling good about your surroundings, and realizing that you can do more with less.

I really hope the last part is true, because I just dumped out two large stacks of newspaper clippings. Clippings I'd been saving for good reasons. Good reasons I can no longer remember.

If you have a clutter-clearing experience you'd like to share, jot it down in the comment box.

He is risen!