Be Here Now- Suzanne Macpherson

Be Here Now.

I could have titled this “ode to the perfect chair,” because I once splurged a large portion of an advance check on the mesh wonder chair, which was worth every penny and has made my life happier than an obedient husband, but instead I chose to title it “Be Here Now.” For those of you who indulged in some self-help during the seventies, it’s a Ram Dass thing.

I am not a minimalist from any standpoint, and I have a great affinity for: smooth creamy white McCoy and Abingdon vases and bold lime green Royal Doulton vases (see photos) from the thirties and forties, I love heartwarming art with houses and fields and basically any shiny objects that catch my fancy—I’m a crow. Visual objects springboard me into inspirational thinking. That and music, which flows from my computer via Slacker- Vince Gauraldi and Dave Brubeck usually.

Lately I’ve read that having an attachment to things is a really stupid focus, and it is, truly. Ask my friend Hailey North who had her entire office swept away by Katrina. Here today, gone tomorrow. The essence of who we are is not contained in our things. Okay, I get that, but I still like my deskscape, and my nest of an office created in a spare room. Like many of my fellow authors I too work well with a sort of controlled chaos around me.

But BUT BUT~~~ over the last two years I’ve been on a quest and one of my quests is to clear out objects and things that don’t serve me anymore . Things that make more chaos than my mind can handle. Things that carry energy I don’t want to carry with me anymore. That’s the Be Here Now quest.

For an author to be in present time is no easy feat. For an author to keep anything clean is not an easy feat ! But once in a while life needs a purge- between books, between career changes, just---between. I’ve been on a “between” for a while now-which is another word for present time without projecting into the future or dwelling on the past. Recently I discovered a process of creating order with “intention.” The simple version is that while you’re going about the process of cleansing out the things that no longer serve you, it is done with an awareness of what you’re doing. Examples: throwing out the files from a closed business from twenty years ago. Getting rid of your ex-husband’s cd collection. (No, I didn’t get a divorce- this one is a keeper lol.) Purging the 1997 Home and Garden Magazine’s. (Okay I can’t get rid of Martha Stewart Magazines!) And ahem, lets not even talk about letting go of some books to make room for others! Recycling takes many forms.

Speaking of Martha Stewart, although it’s not about perfection, her favorite word, I have to admit that visually Martha is a goddess- she creates the concept of beauty and order and color that makes me strive in small ways to pull it together. But I don’t drive myself nuts about it because as my friend and I like to point out—she’s got staff.

For me it’s all about head space. It was getting a little crowded in there. And if I want to move forward in a different way, with bold strokes and exciting new adventures, I need to clear the path.

I’ll leave you with a photograph of a place I like to go to refill the well. It is my “larger” office, in a nearby nature reserve. Free of all thoughts of the box of bills behind me, or what I “should” be doing, I can truly Be Here Now in this lovely spot. I highly recommend a monthly pilgrimage to anywhere near you that has no wifi, just birds and trees. It is the best office of all. Picture me under that willow tree with my notebook and pillow.

Suzanne Macpherson writing on love and laughter~

www.suzmac.com