I’m home from my long journey, once again slowly sinking back into my native soil. The last few days have been characterized by periods of fatigue so strong they were impossible to ignore, alternating with periods of excitement and bright eyed enjoyment.

My work in the woods which has kept me from the keyboard was a labor, make no mistake, but it also lifted fog from me. I came home ready to get started on so many things I have been dreaming on for years, but have not yet enacted because the time never seemed right.

All my work is formed, in large part, from a deep desire to convey the ways I see and feel the world which are beyond plain language. So, of course, when I see peoples eyes glaze over or feel like I need to fake humbleness I loose momentum.

But I have been letting the fear of non-comprehension grip me. I have been waiting for permission which will never come. Someone to tell me its okay to focus on work esoteric, political, rough edged and personal.

I’ still processing everything my journey brought to me, but I know this for certain: I’m no longer waiting for permission.

Decision Paralysis Technology

Yet, there is so much I am excited to do that it is hard to even know where to start. Part of that wait for permission was also a wait for some sort of prioritization to become clear, something to focus me on what is most needed and make the starting easy. I think this wish is understandable but if I want true artistic freedom I must learn to choose for myself.

I think I have part of the solution to that. On my journey I spent several nights with a permaculture group in the mountains of Mendocino County, CA. I went to learn natural building, but the most exciting things I emerged from were ideas on ways to manage long term projects with no money. One piece of technology I learned was the Bliss List.

It works like this. They have volunteers who work the land in return for housing, feeding, and training in practical skills. Those volunteers are expected to do daily chores, help with the animals, do dishes, show up when a job needs ever hand, and otherwise participate in the daily life on the ranch.

Their other work is left up to them. Instead of being directed they are handed a Bliss List—a piece of paper with all the ongoing projects and all the things the stewards dream of one day having built on the land. The volunteer can “choose their bliss”.

Technical ones might help with wiring or the solar panels. Handy ones might help repair buildings or build new pens for the animals. Artistic ones might repaint walls, or refresh the lime wash.

The organizers know that eventually it will all get done, in its own time. They know their volunteers will show up and get the emergency work done when it needs to and the rest can flow according to joy. People are generally better when they work at what calls them.

In the coming days I want to put together a bliss list for myself. A list of all those things I want to do, which I am no longer waiting for permission for. Each day I can do the daily work of cleaning off my table, putting my needles away. I can work to meet a deadline. But otherwise I can choose as the joy calls, trusting in myself to get each bit done in time.

Ill share that list as I make it. And I hope, in the coming days where work grows more important and the world changes, you too might find the Bliss List a useful tool.

More tomorrow,

Weaver

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