Listing Extravaganza!

I'm embarrassed that I've been away for so long. Especially after paying for a blogging e-course in January. I still have yet to officially tell my friends and family about my new blog. For some reason I'm a little shy, but it's probably for the better since I've clearly lacked motivation and discipline for the past month and a half.

But, I'm back now!

And here are a few somethings I've been up to: listing for 30 days! It was so much fun to keep this little notebook full of creative lists for the month of March. I learned a lot about myself and recorded my '25-year-old-self' that I'm sure I'll love to remember in years to come. 

I also kept a gratitude journal for March, which helped me find joy even in my struggles and the daily grind. I've also started up a blog with a friend where we each post a picture and three things we're thankful for once a week. I was inspired to start it with her after reading these blogs. We're going to keep it private for a while since it's more about nurturing our friendship than displaying it for the world. She is in Colorado and I am in Rome. 

And the final project I've started on is journaling every week for a year following these guided prompts. It's always a lovely surprise in my inbox once a week to read the prompt and settle in to some intentional journaling. I've always been a journaler, ever since I received a furry pink and turquoise leopard print journal for my 8th birthday. I haven't always been consistent, but I do have a part of each year since recorded in one of my numerous journals (buying new ones is an obsession of mine). Yet I always seemed to write similar reflections or go off on the same tangent. But with the help from these prompts I'm able to reflect on parts of my life I may have overlooked. 

So, those are a few things I've been up to while I've been away. But now that's it's spring outside and the sunshine stays close by I'm more motivated to do things I've put off for far too long. 

My Roman Life::a set of goals::

1. Really MASTER my Italian! Do this by going to class three times a week, Aperitif Italian language exchange twice a month, tours of Roman sites in Italian once a month, church in Italian every week, Italian TV at home, and finish my many Italian grammar books by actually STUDYING.

2. Save 75% of my au pair earnings. This is actually quite easy to do since I literally have no monthly bills or expenses other than my metro pass, phone credit, minor class fees, and groceries for breakfast. I'm not sure what life will look like come September, so it would be nice to have a cash cushion to sit on for a bit.

3. Go to one museum or historic site a week. Record my musings and observations of the museum as a whole in a notebook. This will keep me feeling like I'm traveling within my "home" for the next six months, along with brainstorming ideas and thoughts for that degree I want to get....

4. READ, BLOG, PHOTOGRAPH. These seem quite fun to do, I know. But for some reason I tend to get caught up in other things (i.e. watch a movie or listen to a podcast when I'm feeling lazy) that they never come up as first options when I'm in the moment. Which brings me to my last goal....

5. BE IN THE MOMENT. Don't fret about the future or what others are doing with their lives. Enjoy the here and now. I know it's cliche, but why is it so hard to accomplish!?

Museum Mornings

As part of my habitual goals for living in Rome the next six months I have been going to a museum or cultural heritage spot once a week. This past Saturday I met up with a friend for pasta in the piazza and a stroll though the Keats & Shelley Museum in Piazza di Spagna. 

It was a glorious and somewhat emotional hour reading about the lives of the poets (Byron & the Brownings included), their letters and drafts, looking at sketches and portraits, browsing the many antique books in the still active library, peering out the windows and wondering how the scene has changed in the past 200 years, glancing at objects once theirs, and remembering with others who wrote of the inspiration and influence of these great poets. 

I felt like I an English major once again. I got teary eyed reading about their tragic lives and deaths. Living in Italy never to leave, dying here only to become a monument of English influence in Italy. Oscar Wilde wrote about how he felt Keats' grave was the most holiest of sites in all of Rome. (He's buried in the Protestant graveyard in Rome, along with Shelley)

Okay, I know, too much detail.....

But don't you just love this new goal....I mean, habit!? So much inspiration flowing from these weekly visits, not to mention the excuse to practice photography and act like a tourist in a place where I live! It's a win-win. 

What inspirational habits do you have?