paint {fumes} & Pandora

I searched for moments of peace this weekend. 

I searched with intention.

I sought them out like it was a treasure hunt and I had the map with the X that marked the spot.

I found a few moments in likely and unlikely places.

I found one at the gym, both headphones tightly tucked in, drowning out the world around me. I stared across the street, across the 20-lanes of traffic merging in the intersection outside of my fishbowl of a gym.  I locked my gaze in on a flag waving in the early morning breeze, and then I turned up the pace to 9.5 miles per minute (a huge feat for me).  I am not a runner by any means, so I had to let all thoughts but "keep going" and "don't stop you're almost there" take the lead.  There was no room left for stray thoughts, for anything other than focus, and just those two simple thoughts to fill my head.  One quick step and one relentless drop of sweat at at time, I chased down  3.21 miles of simplicity. 

Walk.run.walk.run.walk.run...just don't give up.

I didn't give up, so I rewarded my sore back and body with a massage.  A very likely place to find some peace, but surprisingly, sometimes this is the hardest place to not let my mind wander.  The music helps, and this Bach track especially, which I have yet to hear too many times.

1. push play
2. close your eyes
3. listen

 I found another long and extended one in this paint bucket which I have yet to part with, for my room is big, the walls are thirsty, and the interruptions were not kind, but I got a good start and the transformation has begun.  This chore has been on my to-do list for years now.  Years. It'll just be a few more days of Paint Fumes & Pandora, and Al Green Radio will keep me company again, but in the end, the walls will have a new life and the room will have a new intention.

{I always paint barefoot 'cause I can always feel it on the bottom of my foot before I manage to track it all across the floor one wet footstep at a time.}

Interior semi-gloss paint not to hold the sole title for peaceful transformations for the weekend, I took my Summer sandaled feet  in for some TLC.  As I sat there in the massage chair, I set my phone in the bottom of my purse {after my picture proof of course} and picked up a book.  Even if only 30 minutes at a time, it's 30 minutes in the positive.

Finally, the prompt to write this post, because I fell in love with a new site, with a collection of words, and a poet. I fell hard. I fell in love and lust. Again. When it comes to these kinds of inspirations, I am not a selfish lover. I knew I had to share, and so I will:

Tyler Knott

{link}

A wordsmith after my very own beating heart.
Oh, to write love letters like he does.
Oh, to receive love letters like the ones he pens.
I wondered who is the lucky someone who is his muse?
I read. I thought. I reminisced. I wondered. I read some more.


And now I have sat here, speechless, but only to read out loud the words my eyes were soaking in like the walls that drank in paint this weekend.

{link}

Next week, I may find my moments of peace and calm in a sunset or a glass of wine or a rock song, for I have come to find that solitude is what we make it.  It's not a zip code, it's a state of mind.

simply me,
~ Lauren