1. Go three consecutive days without crying, spontaneously, at the
slightest reminder of how much I miss my old life... Check.
2. Recognize happiness when it happens. Seek experiences to make us like this place more. Try to find humor in this hell... I have done this.
3. Realize this is not hell. No one died... I know this. Last month one of my favorite kokoleo customer's husband died suddenly of a heart attack. She has 2 daughters younger than my daughter. Since I've given up facebook I completely missed it but on Sunday (my cheat day) when I logged on it was the first thing that came up in my newsfeed and I was instantly in tears. My heart goes out to her, I can't even imagine dealing with a tragedy of that proportion. Another friend is in the midst of cancer treatment. Another friend is struggling with the effects of a stroke he suffered this past fall. These are life-altering struggles. Being unhappy about a move pales in comparison. I need to remember to be thankful for what we have.
4. Spend less time sifting through cyber stimuli and staring at other people's lives... Check. I gave up facebook for Lent. It hasn't been easy. I've checked back in on Sundays since those are considered "feast" (cheat) days during Lent but other than that I've stayed true to my promise. It's starting to seem like a dumb promise though because I miss my friends and family. Now I just spend my time arguing politics on Twitter. This is not a good tradeoff. It's like when I gave up beer for Lent one year but still drank wine and liquor. I think I'm doing this Lent thing all wrong.
5. Keep doing kokoleo... lighten my inventory... I've done this! Two weeks ago I took a suitcase full of my handmade kids clothes to a shop called Merrily Merrily on Danforth. I thought they would choose a few items but to my surprise they wanted everything. Not only that, but they're posting it online too. They even sent me a spreadsheet of all 186 of my items that shows my base price and their modest markup (seriously the best percentage I've ever gotten from a shop). All those times I randomly made stuff for shops and craft shows when we were living in Los Angeles and Seattle and all those years I carted these things around is finally paying off in Toronto. It's a good thing too because I'm not making anything anymore. My inspiration has up and left me. Maybe this will be the encouragement I need to start making things again.
6. Find another city to live in... Okay, I haven't done this yet. We might even be contemplating staying here another year. I might want to change the goal from "find a new city" to "find a new house."
7. Be somewhere better this time next year... I still have months to accomplish this.
8. Carve out a niche. Create the community I want to see... I've failed miserably at this one.
9. Find joy in the struggle... I'm trying.
10. Write about it along the way... Does cutting an pasting and adding a few sentences count?
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