To contact Gika Rector, call 713.213.7643 or send e-mail.
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It should be obvious. Cleaning up along the way makes sense, a lot of sense.
It’s so nice to complete a project and have it really complete. When you sit down to dinner, what a delight to have the kitchen already neat and tidy. When you spend time in the garden and allocate the last 10 or 20 minutes to put away your tools, you earn a moment to step back and admire your work.
 After the parade
by Gika RectorWhether your office is a place at the kitchen counter or an entire room, what a difference it can make when you clean up along the way. It’s the difference between a clear, clean workspace and a disastrous mountain of paper. Even when you go paperless, it helps to clean up along the way. A sea of computer files can be just as overwhelming as a mountain of papers.
And what about our personal interactions? Thomas Leonard, the father of modern coaching, said, “When someone is doing something…you must communicate immediately or forever carry the extra burden of your unspoken reaction.” How many people or groups of people do you avoid because of something you didn’t clean up along the way? What if you addressed issues as they came up?
What if you haven’t cleaned up along the way? What if you have some piles of stuff, or baggage, to deal with? Start with baby steps. Don’t try to do it all at once. Pick a place, tackle a few things—keep allowing time to clean up along the way, even in this process—and then get on with the rest of your routine.
Whatever you do, notice. Notice what it’s like when you clean up along the way. Notice what it’s like when you don’t. Notice what it’s like when you go it alone. Notice what it’s like when you find some assistance along the way. Notice what you notice.
if you’re facing a mountain of stuff and don’t want to tackle it alone, consider working with someone like my friend Gayle Goddard, The Clutter Fairy. She’s a brilliant professional organizer. Better than anyone else I know, Gayle has a talent for understanding our relationships with our stuff. She even makes it fun!
If you’re facing a different kind of mountain and don’t want to tackle it alone, consider coaching. Coaching is one way to clean up old ideas and stories and expectations, making room for fresh possibilities. It might look like baby steps, but coaching often leads to surprising transformation. Simple baby step: e‑mail me.
 Life as a daring adventure
by Gika RectorIt’s so easy to look at most of the obstacles in your path. “I need to do this for so‑and‑so. I have to clean up that mess. I have to check my e‑mail or see what’s up on Facebook. I have so many meetings to attend. The phone is ringing.” You get the idea. There’s always something else you could or should be doing, and somehow you let that get in the way of doing what you really want to do.
So those are the other obstacles. What about YOU as an obstacle? What are the ideas, thoughts, and expectations that block what you really want? What would you have to give up in order to play full out, to go for a totally fabulous life?
Do you like to think of yourself as a busy, productive, generous person? Would you have to give up that image of yourself if you were having fun with life?
Do you like to present your best self to the world—attractive, competent, organized, likable? How might people perceive you if you were trying new things, living a daring, adventurous life, having fun?
Do you like to make sure everyone else is okay before you take care of yourself? What would happen if they had to take care of themselves a bit more, while you were out “playing” and exercising your talents?
What might happen to your image of yourself if you let go of old expectations and spent more time doing what you absolutely love to do? Surely it’s a trade‑off: living up to your “reputation with yourself” versus living up to your own brilliance. Might be worth a try.
What do you think?
My suggestion: take the bushel off and let your lamp shine. See what happens.
I’ve known her for a really long time, but I don’t remember our first meeting. I do remember our first road trip. I drove and she told me stories the whole way—there and back. I was totally engaged, listening and laughing and wondering which parts of the stories I should actually believe.
 Menil Magnolia, salt print on silk
by Gika RectorShe was fun, totally fun. Life was an adventure, a joy, something to relish with friends and loved ones. Until it wasn’t. Until it all came crashing in and it was too much.
I’m smart, and I’m interested, and I’m curious. But it still took me a while to notice the pattern of her life. Happy, lively, engaged, generous and fun, crashing and burning. Dark and stormy. Tears. How to keep going? Too much pain.
Once, I kept her going, when she had decided to end it. It took her a long time to forgive me. What’s the most loving thing to do for someone in pain? Simpler to say than do: be with them, love them unconditionally, let them be as they are.
Eventually her heart was breaking physically and surgeons cracked open her chest to make the repair. More pain, more healing, some lighter moments, more pain, more healing.
Years later, a mystery and a miracle. A strange accident, a silent heart attack. The miracle: her body had created new arteries, bypassing the surgeons’ bypass.
More recently: new choices, new opportunities, a glimpse of light, rediscovery of self and friends. Not easy, not without pain, but with glimpses of grace.
So much can happen, given just a touch of grace.
Blessings on all who suffer and go on, who wonder what it’s all about and go on, who think it might not be worth it and still go on.
With gratitude for blessings.
With gratitude for grace.
With gratitude for life.
With gratitude for friends.
 My Promise, acrylic on canvas
by Vicki LamprosI’m storing some paintings for a friend. One of them just didn’t fit in the closet, so she was going to take it back and find another spot for it. Without looking at it, I said, “Let’s hang it up. I don’t know where I have any spaces, but let’s hang it up.” Turns out that the perfect spot is in my studio. Turns out the painting is called My Promise.
And we were going to put it in a closet—an attic closet! How ironic, and how sadly common, that we take our promises and store them in a closet.
Take your promises out of the closet. Look at them. Promises to keep, yes? And perhaps some to let go. Either way, they don’t belong in the closet.
It could be that some of your promises just don’t work any more. What’s changed, so that the promise is no longer appropriate? Acknowledge it, and do what you need to do to move forward. (Easier said than done, but important nonetheless.)
What are the promises you’ve made? To whom did you make the promises? Look especially closely at your promises to yourself. Bring them out in the open, and smile at them.
Keep your word, and see if that doesn’t improve your life.
 Monday mornings are tricky. If you get out on the wrong side of the bed, it can stay with you all week long. If you get off on the right foot, things fall into place and you breeze through your days. Sweet.
So what to do on those “It’s Monday all day long!” days? Notice. That’s it. Just notice what you notice. Notice all the things that overwhelm you. Notice all the things that are wrong. Notice all the things you should have done, but didn’t. Notice the dirty dishes and the dirty laundry. Notice how your body feels. Notice that you’ve experienced something like this before and you’re still here. Notice what it was that got you through that experience.
Notice what it was like when you got through it.
Notice one thing you can give thanks for.
Notice one thing you like.
Notice one living thing.
Notice your breath.
Notice you.
Notice.
Breathe.
Give thanks.
Live your life.
Have all the fun you can.
I read an odd little horoscope today, which said that it’s time for me to pay attention to details. Fair enough, but then came the suggestion that I should consider measuring progress in inches. Oh my! Measuring progress in inches! Not such a great prospect for someone who just taught a workshop called “Moving Forward.”
On reflection, I suppose it’s the only way to make progress—one step at a time. I’m inclined to take on projects that are worked in tiny increments. Projects like sewing and knitting and felting and helping people change their lives. Not to mention the volunteer work, being on committees and boards. A friend used to call it “church time.” When a committee meets monthly or quarterly, it can take years to get anything completed.
Oddly enough, I tried to drive into town today, a 35‑mile trip one way. It took an hour to go about one mile, so when I got past the bottleneck, I headed back home. The delay was caused by major flooding. Twenty-seven inches of rain—I think that’s what they said—gives another perspective on measuring in inches.
Instead of attending the class I’d been heading toward, I spent the rest of the day at home: read a few pages, slept a few minutes, figured out why my serger wasn’t making proper stitches, basted a zipper into a skirt, and revised a PowerPoint presentation. Not a single thing completed, but lots of little steps here and there.
And now at the end of the day, the inches have turned into miles, my satisfaction level is much higher than anticipated, and I can happily go to bed, knowing that tomorrow I’ll have “miles to go before I sleep.” Oh and the very best “inch” for today: five inches of blog post—my very first one.
What if we could let go of holiday stress? What if all our unrealistic expectations for the “perfect season” could be transformed into a spirit of celebration that truly expresses who we are and what we value?
Date and time
 Wednesday, November 4, 2009
6:30–8:30 pm
Description
Felt Great for the Holidays is an unconventional workshop that starts with a deceptively simple creative act: you’ll craft one or more felt ornaments or small vessels by wrapping wool around a 3″ plastic ball. Color, texture, soap, and water create an environment of festivity and fun within which we’ll explore anxiety and anticipation, creativity and celebration, fellowship and transformation, improvisation and surprise.
No experience is necessary for this workshop. Just bring a towel, a plastic bag, and your curiosity. more
Date and time
 Saturday, October 3, 2009
9 am–noon or
1:30–4:30 pm
Description
This workshop is offered as an activity of the Texas Federation of Fiber Artists Conference 2009, and is only open to conference participants.
Nuno felting is a fast and fun approach to an ancient fiber medium using luscious merino wool and loosely woven fabric. Participants will finish a small hanging piece or art object in this class. more
Date and time
 Three Wednesday evenings
September 16, 23, and 30, 2009
6:00–8:30 pm
Description
Participants are invited to enjoy some “all about me” time—to consider what it means to “be who I am and do what I do.” And, then of course, there are all those other people in our lives. If I’m going to move forward, what happens to them? How can I take care of myself and be “response‑able” to the others in my life?
It’s all about being an individual in community. Sounds so simple…. more
Who would guess that agitation, and its cohort, confusion, could be allies of personal transformation?
Date and time
 Wednesday and Thursday
September 9 and 10, 2009
6–9 pm
Description
Using feltmaking as a metaphor, this two-evening workshop will explore how we respond to the unexpected. Alternating between brief written responses and creating nuno and three‑dimensional felt, participants in Felt Explorations: Art for Reflection will reflect on their experiences of confusion, agitation, and surprise, and how those have and could lead to personal transformation. more
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