The Ruins Will Not Be My Moby Dick
And a Conversation about Home Improvement as Art with Jo Braun
First, a new episode of The Ruins Podcast is ready to WATCH.
I tried something new this time, so you can both see and hear the beautiful Jo Braun as she leads me through a conversation that takes home improvement to a whole other level. We play with the idea of my body and her house as our latest, out of the studio art projects. Yoga, resistance training, setting interesting goals, fighting against pretty wrapping paper excuses, DIY, power tools and building a relationship with a house. Even a cat cameo!
Home Improvement with Jo Braun: The House and Body as Art
A few notes about the podcast: The video version is only accessible through the Spotify app. But if you are cool with just listening, then any format will work. Also, all 27 episodes of The Ruins Podcast continue to be FREE and advertisement free. In my mind, this helps me keep their schedule and their guests a sweet surprise. They take a lot of time and work to produce. I want them to be fun for me, so think of them like an unexpected over tipper back when you waited tables that summer.
Watch the 1-minute clip below. The whole episode is one hour and ten.
Many of you are now familiar with the commitment to work on my health this year. If you have not yet read From the Pond to the Bulldozer, it’s a great primer to understand my decision to pivot from all work and no self-care that has defined much of the last decade of Ruins building.
Healing is a word I reach for lately.
When I say The Ruins will not be my Moby Dick,
I don’t mean that it’s not my magnum opus, because it is, arguably, that. I mean that I have decided to not let it be my white whale. I am choosing to not be Captain Ahab, pursuing my obsession to the detriment of everything else. You may have heard its pet name, my beast across the creek, so I forgive you and me for the monster analogy sticking. But 2024 is the year that I am steering the ship to quieter waters. The year I am learning to remind myself that it’s not just me and the whale in a battle to the end.
There are hundreds of sailors on the ship with me. First mate mosaicists, lieutenants, pursers, boatswains, midshipmen, quartermasters, and seamen. I will call you Ishmael and Queequeg. Pip and Starbuck. You are fully formed characters who spend some precious time on the ship and then move on to your own stories, playing your own lead roles.
As I unwrap each color study for The Ruins Beehive, I think to myself, this project is like a ship. I may be the captain, but you all are helping to keep it from being too much about me and the whale. I can even rest for a while, knowing that while I take time to heal parts of myself and grow stronger in my weak spots, the mosaic sailors are steering the ship.
For months now, I have been getting my body into healing spaces. Some days it’s the 90-degree water of the therapy pool. Some days it’s the dark yoga room. Other days are harder hitting with weights and HIIT workouts. Some days it’s just a walk down the trail towards The Darr Deer.
As I take deep breaths and quiet my racing mind, the thought of all you sailors out there helping keep the ship afloat, gives me a peace that cannot be priced.
One of the subjects that Jo Braun and I discuss in the podcast is using our strengths to address our weaknesses. She asks me for examples of what I mean by that, and like all podcast experiences, I look back and wish I had answered more fully. If I consider how I write as a strength, then I would say that I want to approach physical activity as I approach writing.
I write every day. Some days I only write crap, but I keep writing. Writing is never perfect but always interesting. Writing helps me move through the world with clarity. The words I choose, their placement and organization are a thing that I travel through. Always changing, never static. They are alive on the page.
As a reader, I will let you make the connections.
Thank you for being here, as I keep digging for optimism.
Some days with a hammer, some days with a shovel. Some days with a harpoon?
What a sweet treat to watch (!) your visit with dear Jo Braun! The way I see it, every aspect of our lives is an art project! You two are wonderful examples, and I thank you both for being brave in your journeys. All of us who get to listen, read and now watch are richer for your sharing. ❤️
Hello Rachel! In January I had my yearly physical, the bloodwork came back and said I was “pre “, “pre”, “pre” for many unhappy diseases. I had to start a medication I didn’t really want to be on, and my Dr said that loosing weight would help. The only way I’ve found to lose weight is by not eating anything after dinner ( around 6:30-7pm) until breakfast, which I stretch out to 9am-10 if possible. I’ve been doing this since mid January and have lost 11 pounds. I need to make exercise a part of my life, but I haven’t yet… but this “intermittent fasting “ I’m doing at night is making me feel a lot better! My health is improving and like you, I’ve made it my priority. 🌻
Maureen