Simply A Moment [August]: It's 'paperwork' Jim. But not as we know it.

Hello hello.

I sometimes feel that having too many dates marked out in my diary, dates setting out the path of my life for the year in advance, somehow seems to make the current month speed up.

Like I'm always living in the days ahead.

But not with 'the 15th of each month', when 'Simply A Moment' happens.

Having the 15th ringed in my diary never seems to make the intervening days rush by. If anything, they seem far apart. Maybe because they slow me down, give me a chance to absorb a minute or two, to feel time stretching out. Being lived.

In case you don't know 'Simply A Moment'  is a mid-month marker created by Simply Alexa who encourages us to pause and record something which could otherwise have disappeared into the ether.

[To learn more you can read Alexa's tips on how to record your own moments and if you do join in, there's a link box on her August moment for you to add your post.]

It's something I commit to blogging each month and the photos I take for it, alongside the text of my blog posts printed out, have even become the single solitary things I currently sit down to scrapbook [gasp!]. And I haven't even shared any of those pages with you! Maybe one day ...

But for today ... here's my August moment ...

It's 'paperwork' Jim. But not as we know it.

Date: Thursday 15th August 2013
Time: 11:15am
Location: Home. Living room office area 

What began as a custom order for two packs led to this:

Lots of sheets of paper spread out across the floor because I ran out of desk space for all the new ideas I had while browsing for just two themes. 

I'm wearing thick grey tights today and I haven't worn tights for weeks. Months even. Because, unusually, we've actually had a summer this year.

But now ... now there's the beginnings of a slight, but familiar, back-to-school nip in the air.

From where I sit, in the swivel chair, at the pull-out desk in the living room, I realise I am actually physically positioned between my various jobs [careers?].

Above me, on the top of the shelf unit lay copies of all the magazines my work's been published in [let's call that Job #1 ... if we're counting]. Actually no, it's not all of them, because I stopped buying some titles when it became such a regular thing.

I feel a slight pang now that I don't have them all ...

And, as we know, I'm surrounded by paper just waiting to be shuffled into shape and added it to my Etsy shop shelves [where 'selling online' is Job #2].

And then over there, on the floor, nestling up against the base of the settee there's my bright pink leather-bound note book which is gradually filling up with little 'tales' which I want to turn into prints. To share. [So let's call 'my own range of printed ... stuff' Job #3 shall we?]

[BTW: that 'back-to-school' nip in the air I mentioned? Every time I feel it I'm put in mind of how the time to return to Job #4 'University student support' is edging ever nearer.]

Next to me, at the desk, sit two boxes of padded envelopes delivered this morning. 50 in each. 100 in total. Together the stacked boxes reach up almost half my height. I quietly hope that I'm going to use them all. Need them all. [For Job #2 that is].

And then there's that email [hovering there, beneath this screen as I type] which I haven't replied to yet. The one to discuss something I'm going to make. But it's for someone I couldn't dream of taking payment from. So that's not a job as such.

I sip tea from the mug with the owl on and smile at the text from James saying he won't eat the muffin he took to work with him. Because it's mine! I'd put one in his bag for him while he wasn't looking, and he'd already put one in.

Outside the sun shines and a breeze pushes open the French doors onto the garden. The orange flowers we didn't plant [which have been there since we moved in ... one of very few 'original' things we didn't clear away] bob and wiggle with the wind.

A male house sparrow hops around pecking at a stale slice of bread. Nearby there's those two stale bread buns which, when viewed from a certain angle, I thought looked like a guinea pig out there yesterday!

They do look like a guinea pig ... I have the photos to prove it. [I'll put them on my Facebook page for you!]

Today, this, what I'm doing, is what I want to be doing. And I want it all to work out.

I move my fringe away from my forehead. It's grown. The fringe. Not my forehead.

My eyes now register pink blotches where the sun was shining down on the light paving stones while I was watching the sparrow.

I think: that looks like the kind of strength of  sunshine that's grabbing its moment in between rain showers. Determined. Bright. Clear.

'Hey, sunshine' I think 'got any of that going spare?'

It shines its response. I smile ... sip my tea and return to my 'paper' work.

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Thank you for taking a moment to read mine.

See you at the weekend with some more scavenger hunting!

Julie