Another study for decorativedecember

I'm still not certain I am going to stick with my self imposed creative guide this month I've called #decorativedecember, but it seems in between the various to-doing and playing tourist I've been up to, studies of decorative animals seems to be the best focus for me at present.

The goal with the decorative animals and designs was to be for things such as home goods and fabrics and decorative accesories.

And as I am often finding myself on a footpath people with sheep, it stands to reason they have been uppermost in my mind.

Now, my last post was cut off a bit short. I had begun to ruminate and contemplate on the changability of a day when one is trying to both set up a new part time residence in a new country as well as attempting to make a sort of pattern of one's days.

I am a creature of habit.

I have always been so, mainly put there both by genetics possibly and also habit. Having been home-schooled meant I had to be disciplined with my time, so patterns, lists and schedules simply became my habit.

At the end of my last post, having had to run as my friends were calling out to me to go on another antiquing adventure, I left it sort of trailing off.
I had mentioned learning a Life lesson, but never actually mentioned what that lesson was.
Well, it is simply that having had plans to go to the opera in London and stay overnight had gone Pete Tong as they say, or rather turned on it's head.

I decided to roll with it and the subsequent day spent working and exploring more of my wonderful Canterbury resulted in my realizing this:

Plan for the Big Picture but be flexible and live more by whims on the Daily.

This convuluted Life Pattern is simply that, I DO like a plan. I love to think about 6 months and a year in advance. But, to that thinking I must place a sort vague structure. A Plan that has some perimeters, but in the day to day living, I am willing to be more 'seat of your pants' in living it. As my plans went wrong that day, I realized I need to not plan out so specifically a single day.

Thus my London plans now whilst in England are simply Go to London.

And then the detail of when will be based on how I feel of a morning and what I can manage to plan out as the day unfold. This will possibly work best for me. And might, in the bargain, give me even a more zen look at Life in general, which can be a good thing.

Now this morning is a case in point. Here was my morning coffee.

Made not at home, as is my usual custom, but at our local Tea room. This was because I thought to do certain things this morning and then we were awakened to our bell at the front door at 8 am. Luckily we are all early risers, so no one was in their dressing gowns. It was the plumber.

We have been waiting on him for the past month as we have to have one of the toilets fixed and the heat has been wonky and my house mates NEED a dishwahser installed (that is another post altogether).

Workmen in the house mean I work at the local tearoom.

I am lucky in our little village as we have this wonderful old Tea room that is very 40's and plays big band music all the time. I rather love it. Our local also has coffee/tea of a morning and I can work in there if need be. And there is also the wonderful Tadpole Tearoom I spoke about before, which is at the end of great footpath walk through a field of, you guessed it, sheep.

My Big Plan: Find time to work, the daily 'seat of my pants' solution was : "The workemen are in so go out and get some work done earlier than expected".

Yesterday, Sunday, there was a last minute event that my friend and housemate went to. We had wanted to go (Big Plan) but forgot to jot in down in our diary and when we were out at a local art/craft fair in Sandwich, we remembered. I checked last minute (seat of our pants) and saw we had time to add it to our day.

We went to the advent choral service at the Canterbury Catherdral.

As we rushed in last minute to the Nave, where the service was being held, we couldn't help but gasp at the amount of scaffolding and work going on in this bit of the cathedral.

I had wanted to get more shots IN the service, as it is so beautiful and this is the first Advent service so we were all given tapers as we entered. As the service began the lights were shut off and light bearers came to each aisle to light our tapers and then we each lit the person next to us. So the vast cathedral was eventually filled with joyful voices and the soft glow of candles illuminating we parishioners. You could almost feel the shadows of those from centuries past slipping in and out of the flickering light.

I did get on shot of these amazing large glass decorations hung for the coming Christmas season.

I am, in my own definition, a Cultural Christian.

I learned to be and appreciate my Christian heritage more from a Jew.

A friend of mine who is Jewish once told me that he was Jewish culturally and that he felt he could partake of the ritual and tradition of his religion without feeling over burdened by the belief or weighing oneself down about God and all the details. This, then, is how I like to be.

I have a Christian background and thus look to my forebears and ancestors in their ritual and connection in a very zen way, that I feel I can plug into it as one would approach meditation or spiritual contemplation.

My friend and house mate does very much the same and we both love hymns and the advent choral service did NOT dissapoint. We left all abuzz with the sounds we had heard and participated in as well.

Our tapers had burned down by the end of the hour and a half service and the dying light of the early evening had been replaced by night when we left the gates of the cathedral. We had to walk about the city about, buzzing wiht the song and beauty of it all.

My phone did very little justice to the Christmas lights in Canterbury last night but it was lovely to walk about in them.

And I LOVE cathedrals and churches, so it's an honour to be allowed to attend the services held in them.

The window displays for Christmas are also really darling.

So, another day of trying to find my footing in the day to day of my English life. I am lucky in my time here, but it will be short I know and I am determined to TRY to get a bit more structure to the Big Picture of the rest of my stay, but will hold to my new 'seat of the pants' whims of the day.

Two of my favourite sayings are:

If you want to make God laugh: Make a Plan

and

The only Constant in Life is Change

and these always seem to hold true. There can be a sort of comfortable solidity to embracing the changeability of life, I suppose.

I shall close here as I have droned on long enough and my second coffee is getting cold. Of course now I am at my favourite cafe in Canterbury now and looking forward to walking about a bit to feel the city and the season.

I hope all are having a fine day and that you can find that balance of Change and Plan, it can be an elusive thing, but worth the effort attempting it.

Please feel free to upvote, share, and by all means leave comments. I am trying to get back to them as much as I can.