Up: [[Creating a Body of Work]] Created: 2024-03-09 Updated: 2026-02-05 It is fascinating to see how these passions have echoed over and over throughout my life. #### 1. Miniatures But it’s more than just a miniature anything. It’s scenes that make up small worlds. That’s the appeal of sandplay too, and of my altars. It’s not miniatures per se, but I also remember loving *365 Bedtime Stories* because every story related to the neighbourhood map in the front of the book. It was a small world. There’s a good chance my lifelong interest in puppetry belongs here too, although maybe more from the perspective of encouraging imagination, much like the miniatures. #### 2. Connections Thematic collections; books with annotations; James Burke programs when they were on television; connecting within and across disciplines; symbolism and psychology and myth in tarot; Jungian work and feeling like a student of the world. I spent a couple of years collecting ‘On This Day’ material for a writing project I thought could be used with adolescents. #### 3. Environment I love seeing, creating and being in beautiful and soothing quiet spaces — physical, mental or creative. I love organizing a mess, throwing stuff out, cleaning up so that my physical environment gives me the calmness and peace that leads to the clarity I desire. My long-time fantasy about my [[Thatched Roof Cottage by the Sea in Wales]] fits this category. I imagined it would be the place where I could finish the writing of a book in the idyllic environment that I long for. It is more than possible that my home, [[Hestia’s Cottage]], fits the bill. #### 4. Patterns and Structures Taxonomies; [[Comparing Hero's and Heroine's Journeys]]; [[Tarot]]; *The Cat in the Hat Dictionary*; *The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack*; [[Jung's Map of the Soul.webp]]; mapping in all forms; the models Nick has created for [[PKM]]. #### 5. Paper and Colour Print books, stationery, art supplies. An abundance of paper of a wide variety of colours, textures, purposes. #### 6. ‘Year of’ Books I absolutely love deep dives into something, probing from many perspectives, reporting on it openly, honestly and with insight. It’s about paying attention, noticing everything, tracking all of it, eventually seeing patterns or finding a framework or structure that fits. There’s something here of my desire, when I was doing my doctorate, to track the microcosm of the classroom. There are books I love as well that weren’t ’Year of’ books, they weren’t confined to a particular time period, but they were deep dives and honest reporting: *Sometimes a Shining Moment*, *Organizing Genius*, *Faith, Hope and Carnage*, everything [[Abigail Thomas]] has ever written and, of course, [[Jung's Red Book]]. The memoir form is particularly helpful for this but there are others, such as journals, essays and graphic texts. This is where I really want a combination of words and images, as I wrote about on [[2024-03-16]]. #### 7. Creative and Intellectual Inspiration This has been huge for me since very early days. I had the idea of making a daily calendar of inspiring writing quotes long before a company went ahead and did that. Movies like *The Paper Chase* inspired me so much, I almost went to law school. But it wasn’t the law that did it for me. It was the long nights studying in the library, the challenge of tough professors, the honing of intellect. This has also been the appeal of Scotland for me — the intensity of songs like *Scotland Forever* the ancient part of my lineage that is captured in stories, in my clan crest and tartan. It’s also connected to my fascination with transition, [[Liminal]] spaces and transformation. #### 8. Reading I am a reader. That has been a huge part of my identity since age 4. I love books, love to buy them, read them, be around them, follow the trails they set to other books. I love the feel of the paper, the different fonts that are used, the covers and bindings.