A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives #7

We are at the midpoint of the Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives.

Are you feeling the breeze?  Is it working for you?

Maybe what we all need is a fresh perspective on things.  Some way to shake us out of the relentless mishegas (Yiddish for craziness) we call life.  Besides being better for your skin, letting go and devoting three minutes to focusing upon something beautiful and powerful, like a midsummer sunrise, will also center you, get your energy and endorphins flowing.  Hey listen, how could you not want to do that?

It will stop the frenzy which is the next step in the plan.  Perhaps this step should have been the first one.  But if you are as distracted and overcaffeinated as I am, you will probably skip around doing these steps which I have included for you here:

1 Get over yourself

2 Get off the grid

3 Get local

4 Bring on color

5 Avoid vampires

6 Read like a writer

Go ahead.  All of you schwer arbeiters (Yiddish for hard working people like you).  Take three minutes to turn inwardly, flick the chattering demons off your shoulder, and embrace the joy of a simple and beautiful image.  This step is for you.

7 Stop the frenzy

So you need an image, maybe?  Here’s a silver sunrise on Rockaway Beach from my inner gallery.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Breezy Point on Bicycles

in Breezy Point with Joanne, Peggy, Jerry, Robin & Hoong Yee

When I was a kid growing up in Queens, my sister and I rode our bikes everywhere.  For hours.   We would have a couple of dollars in our pocket for a Carvel ice cream cone, maybe a slice at Superman pizza on Bell Boulevard and we would be out the whole day until the time when squares of light would fill the houses and moms would lean out calling their kids in for dinner.  Entire endless summer days we spent riding, talking about everything and nothing, cruising wordlessly down wide avenues.

One of my favorite bike rides is through Breezy Point, at the tip of the Rockaway Peninsula.  Seth and I like doing this ride in the late afternoon so that we are riding on the dune paths close to sunset.  Of course, we always stop at the Sugar Bowl.  You can’t help it because everyone spills out onto the beach and bikepath.  But you can always stop for a cold drink and continue riding.

Last week, our friends Jerry and Robin took us on a ride through Long Beach.  So this week, we took them on our Breezy Point ride and stopped by to see our friends Joanne and Peggy who invited us into their lovely home right on the beach.  They are true beach people – Joanne says she can shake sand out of her winterboots!

Thank you both for your gracious hospitality and greatly appreciated Diet Cokes!

Note:  Seth and I ride beach cruisers – big bikes with one gear and a back pedal break.  Oh, and one of our bikes is painted silver with yellow polka dots and has a basket.  Jerry has a fancier bike with 21 gears and I suppose that does make the ride easier.  It is about 13 miles from our house on Beach 124th Street to the tip of Breezy so the total trip is 26 miles.

Seth and his yellow polka dot bicycle with basket

If you are coming in from Manhattan, you can take your bikes on the ferry from downtown Manhattan to the pier at Riis Park and ride straight into Breezy Point by turning right, or you can head towards Fort Tilden and Hero Road which runs along the fishing beaches into Riis Park.  Pick up the boardwalk at Beach 126th Street and ride down to Rockaway Taco for a fabulous lunch at Beach 96th Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard.  We made a barbeque at home with all kinds of greens I picked from my garden this morning and listened to some fabulous music Jerry, the playlist maestro, brought along.

This is a jewel of a ride, what I call a Moveable Feast and one you should definitely treat yourself and your bicycle buddies to!

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Living Momentously

Every August into September is a cliffhanger for me.  A series of moments filled with emotions chased by fear, hope, sometimes tears.

Every year since 2007, I brace myself for a series of tests beginning with ultrasounds, mammograms, visits to my breast surgeon and uncologist and pray for everything to be normal.

I know this was my sister’s life as she battled lung cancer.  I also know that breast cancer is the most pervasive killer cancer after lung cancer.  Knowing all this I am grateful for every day and yet I know there have been many days I have lost sight of the preciousness of life.  Deep down I wonder why I always need such soul piercing wake up calls to get my perspective back.

Monday afternoon I am going in for a bilateral biopsy to remove nodules, very small.

Am I thankful?  Yes.  Am I fearful?  Yes, at times, terrified.  There are no words to describe the way I feel moving through this process other than – momentously.  Life is a string of moments I am living vividly to the point of exhaustion,  immersing myself in the depths of every detail, every sensation.

A simple breakfast is a feast.  A walk on the beach, a breathtaking journey.  Each breath, a flock of seagulls.  Oscar Wilde captures this phenomenon beautifully:

One can live for years sometimes without living at all, and then all life comes crowding into one single hour.

For all of you who may face similar challenges,

I think of you with great compassion,

I wish you grace,

I pray for love to comfort you,

In this and every moment.

Hoong Yee

Knitting on the Beach

Seth and the finished booties

I am in love with my latest project.

These are a pair of booties with a little cuff knit in a bouncy bright red microfiber that are easy, quick and so Wow! that I just had to share them with you.  My friend Frances at the Walter and Elise Haas Fund and I are going to present this project at our knitting circle in Chicago for the upcoming Grantmakers in the Arts Conference.

Now I have to tell you that I really have no use for directions that make me do all kinds of extra verkcockte (Yiddish for stupidcrazy) steps that can be done more simply and elegantly executed.  I am absolutely insulted by poor design that lacks thoughtfulness in the details.

What do I mean by that?  Listen, now I’m on a roll.   The original design for these booties had no cuff to keep them on a baby’s feet and as any new parent will tell you,  “Who needs another thing to keep track of?”  I cut down the number of steps, simplified the process and creating a set of little videos to accompany a slide presentation so anyone can follow along whether you are in a knitting circle or knitting on the beach. 

I want all you nonprofit and ninja knitters to be able to knock out a pair of these booties whereever and whenever you find some spare time.  They will keep a baby’s feet warm and bring a smile to new mommies and daddies. 

Frances happens to have a lot of pregnant friends.  If you are like me and do not, maybe there is a charity you can donate them to.  Let me know if you find one.

Stay tuned!  More to come.

Get more Wow!
 

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out: 

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good 

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit 

Style Notes from me, your artspy 

Hoong Yee 

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day  

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested 

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer) 

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update 

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.  

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?  

A Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives #6

photo by MichaelKPhoto

A friend of mine has a repertoire of dinner questions that never fail to stir up animated conversations among his guests.  This is an example of one:

Do you want happiness or do you want pleasure?

I am told that happiness is a state of mind that is influenced by many things ranging from your relationships with others, with religion, with your aspirations to your genetic makeup.  Some factors are within your control, some are not.

Pleasure is far more intriguing to me.  A brief but blissful reaction:  30 seconds to an hour or two.  This is something you can create for yourself.

Happiness and her sidekick, Pleasure

Happiness is a lifelong journey filled with peaks, valleys and all kinds of pitfalls and pitstops in between.  While you are en route to your happiness, it is so important to take a moment to discover your own sources of pleasure in unexpected ways and in unexpected places.

To inspire you pleasure seekers, I have put together a Twelve Step Plan for Restless Creatives.  For those of you just joining us, here are steps 1 to 5:

1 Get over yourself

2 Get off the grid

3 Get local

4 Bring on color

5 Avoid vampires

Which brings us to today’s step.

#6 Read like a writer

I am forever doomed to be one of those people who read, rereads, questions, and rewrites everything on a page.  Determined to inhabit the creative moment of the author I am reading, so often wishing I had penned those sentences, this habit of mine has opened worlds not so ready to yield their secrets to the casual eye.

Do you want to be a better writer?  Read better writers.

Consider yourself a creative, not a consumer.  Big difference.  A restless creative will read to improve her craft, a consumer will read to be entertained.

A funny thing happens when you read like a writer.  You take pleasure in being a writer in everything you do.

What do I mean by that?

Being a writer in every moment is appreciating the stories that unfold before you.  The worlds behind the words, the interrupted narratives of people on their way to happiness.

Here’s an glimpse into a unique world by a writer of rare and uncensored skill:

“Oh Archie, you are funny,” said Maureen sadly, for she had always fancied Archie a bit but never more than a bit because of this strange way he had about him, always talking to Pakistanis and Caribbeans like he didn’t even notice and now he’d gone and married one and hadn’t even thought it worth mentioning what colour she was until the office dinner when she turned up black as anything and Maureen almost choked on her prawn cocktail.

This amazing rattling interior monologue bumbles on and on fueled by Maureen’s  peevish thoughts;  you can almost picture her frowning, distractedly folding her arms while gazing at him.  It is from Zadie Smith’s novel, White Teeth.

Take pleasure in the journey.

Get more Wow!

If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?