May I always strive to break a par·a·digm should it break my ability to innovate.
Recently, I’ve discovered something incredible within myself: the surprising ability to innovate. That is, taking what is commonplace, everyday items, and transforming them into something else. A few basics about my desires, I believe in simplicity, I believe in the slow and steady transformation of my life into something better. My home speaks this in ways that I know deserve to change more quickly than I have previously been comfortable.
Recently my partner and I moved into a new apartment, I loved the 10′ ceilings and wood floors in this third story huge apartment, she loved the fire place and large room with plenty of windows that overlooked the street. In moving in, we took careful stock of our desires and needs and decided to divide the space up as follows, outside of the standard home living categories:
- Largest Room – “Mastery” Room
This is the room that we decided we would essentially “tithe” to ourselves for the fruition of certain things that we wish to accomplish. In particular, my teaching, our yogic practice, and her dance. - Living Room – Community Space
Our objective here being the total relaxation of not only guests but clients that come to our home, especially if they have come to an event we will hold in the Mastery room. - Office Space – My creative and work space
Carved out of the entry (foyer) room and part of the massive dining room, this space is a carefully orchestrated space that may seem unseemly at first glance. That is, putting my office space right in the middle of the house – however, I wanted to have my work be central to what is important to me; family, life, home, and business.
The office space holds a special challenge, and that is I wanted to literally carve out a space out of another space that is wide open. I knew that I had to create a partition that would:
- Separate the office space from the living space
- Create a clear boundary for my work to happen
- Be unobtrusive enough to include myself in the home at the same time.
A few months ago, my partner had bought a 12 cube interlocking organizer from Costco. This unit was a pretty flexible storage unit we used for clothes in our bedroom. As part of our ongoing organization, we decided we did not want this in our bedroom anymore. After debating selling it at our upcoming garage sale, I had a flash of innovation, and the attached end result picture is the result of about thirty minutes of reconfiguring this shelf. To be certain, the divider is not complete, I still have to cover about 10 feet more of partition space, but I feel that this is such a beautiful divider.
What is it exactly that makes these flashes of brilliance happen? Feel free to drop in some comments or pictures about things like this that have happened to you.
Keep the fires alive,
Eli