Unlucky or Lucky 13?

July 13th, 2007

I always thought the superstition regarding Friday the 13th was kind of odd. And I was amazed to learn about some of the reasons why 13 and Friday were seen as unlucky when doing some reading about it a few years ago. 13 was considered lucky in many cultures, including among the ancient Egyptians. In pagan times, 13 was associated with the 13 months of the pagan calendar (relating the the approximately 13 cycles of the moon each year). Friday was also once considered quite lucky. It was associated with the goddess Freya (for whom Friday was named) who was associated with fertility and love. In Christian times, all things feminine were made out to be dangerous and evil, therefore the number 13 became very unlucky and even unluckier on the luckiest of pagan days, Friday. Incidentally, Freya was also associated with cats which is why crossing the path of a black cat is now considered unlucky (it used to be considered lucky!) So, if you get all spooked around Friday the 13th, take a breath or even celebrate it!! Ever since reading about the history behind the 13th, I've taken a special liking to it. The poor day has taken a lot of flack.

I'm feeling loads better today. Thank you for the well wishes!! I spent the day doing some cleaning and organizing, sanding and gessoing, and working on a painting that I really like. I'll get it up here once it's dry.

Last night, the fiansor was out taking his employees out for their monthly dinner excursion, so I got cozied up in bed with my sketchbook and pencils and paper and all sorts of other stuff. And I ended up getting to work on my own special life binder. I mentioned earlier how I'd been wanting to create one. Well, on the plane to Boulder (plane rides are a wonderful place to brainstorm I've found), I sketched all sorts of ideas of how I wanted it to function. I determined some of the categories to separate my binder into (art ideas, business ideas, blog ideas, calendar with to-do lists, quotes, misc) and how I wanted to make my calendar (weekly spreads with room for to-do lists and inspirations as they arrive), and what other things should be included (a plastic sleeve for business cards), a folder for each category, and a plastic sleeve for bits and pieces that would fall out of an open folder, etc... I happened to have these colorful dividers and folders left over from massage school, so I emptied out my old notes and filled the sections instead with various types of paper that I punched holes in. It still needs some work. I'm currently using post-its as tabs to find the sections as the current tabs, while colorful, all kind of blend together. I used it today and it was great for catching and organizing the random thoughts I was having. I didn't have to track down the five thousand places I normally write little notes to myself when I was trying to remember what I was going to do next or the different sketch books I put art ideas in when I sat down to paint. So far so good. We'll see how it goes.

p.s. As a reminder, the Angels for Brianna auction ends tomorrow, the 14th, at 6:30 p.m. PST.

Posted by Leah on July 13th, 2007 in dis/organization, inspiration | Permalink | 2 Comments |