Days 8,9,10

Been busy - or not focus or something. Here is what I have been up to.

Bookstore (story) – OBSERVING OTHERS.
In an effort to find the perfect place to write this book I found myself on this day in a bookstore. The bookstore is a large chain, the kind that sells coffee and snacks and has gooshy chairs and more books than you could possibly ever read.
I have been here many times but never sat here to work or read. I have always just come in to buy a book, and today I found that I was missing something vitally important to my well being by not having done this sooner.
I am upstairs in a little corner spot and there are about 7 chairs scattered about. They are the worn chairs that strangers and moms with small children have frequented. There is an older man working away, reading a text book of some sort, calculator in hand. The man is working hard, obviously, but about every 5 minutes his eyes droop and he takes a little nap. His naps are short. I am not even sure he knows he is asleep. Perhaps it is not sleep but deep thought. The kind that can only be done with eyes closed. His chair is faced slightly out.
Across the way is a woman, perhaps in her 30’s. She has moved the chair clear across the area so that she can watch people, I suspect. She not only moved her chair, but another one as well. They sit slightly facing eachother away from the rest of the chairs. It seemed as if she was meeting someone as she had draped her coat over one and sat in the other. But as I have been observing her she has not had any company. I assume this was her attempt to not seem alone, but remain so.
One older woman who has the wizened look of a nun, (I have a keen, but unexplainable sense for nuns) has set her chair square to the wall, looking out to the window, at a dreary, grey early winter day.
There are others here, all together, all not together. All with different senses of the environment we have chosen. I find this place a perfect place to think. The people here have stories. I can watch them. (As I wrote that, one woman got up, and another swooped down on her spot, moving both the chair and the side table 90 degrees… how interesting that it is socially acceptable to move the furniture about so in a bookstore!)
These people are a microcosm of the greater society. They have each determined their best environment. A change in the direction of a chair, the proximity to others, the available accompanying furniture.
For me I never thought to move my chair. I am not the type of person that moves chairs around I suppose. I found an open spot and was pleased that the window ledge nearby was at the right height for my cup of tea. I am glad I suppose that this spot gave me a vantage point that would allow me the pleasure of people watching. I am glad that despite the size of this place, and the obvious number of customers milling about, it is fairly quiet. I can think here. I have things to think about.
So what does this experience tell me, and more importantly, you about environment? Inspiration, efficiency and effectiveness can all be affected by where you are, your comfort and the other environmental factors. I have always prided myself on my ability to multi-task. Even on the basic level, I almost always do whatever I am doing with the TV on. Yet there is no television here and I am able to think and write and read more than I have in days. Being here gives me a sense of connection with people, and yet they are not a distraction. I am able to witness the fluid orchestration of people in, and out, moving things about, unique and interesting, without having to stop. (Sleepy old guy just packed up and left. His chair sits empty)
In order to find the proper environment we need to know what works for us. And then we need to reproduce that environment in the places that we work and live. (Young woman just walked up to take old guys seat, interestingly, she did not move it).
If I work best in a place that is busy, but not intrusive. Populated but quiet, I will need to look at my office and my home to see if these places work for me in this way too.
Where do you thrive?


Oh--- and I have Cashew Chicken at Golden Pheonix yesterday... I am no longer a vegetarian.... oh well :)