I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Sunday Planning, I plan for the week ahead.
I saw someone say on social media yesterday, “you can reinvent yourself any time.” Maybe that is true in some sense—you can always choose to change up your life—but true reinvention requires effort and time. In my year-long reinvention blogging project, I barely got started. That’s why I decided I needed to give myself a longer time frame.
My (tentative?) decision that I’ll focus on festivals in addition to shows in 2026 stretches out my time horizon too, and makes me feel less pressure and urgency in the present.
It does introduce a couple deadlines though:
- I need to get a booth shot done by the end of January 2026. This means I need to borrow or buy a tent with walls.
- I want to get a chapbook with ten to twelve painting-story pairings printed by the end of this year (to take advantage of end-of-year printing specials)
I have five painting-story pairings done, and intend to complete at least five more by the end of October. That way I can layout my chapbook in November, and order printed books during Black Friday sales.
I may also order some chapbooks for my Snow Bound painting-photo pairings too, as they may be another way to market my art.
But this week I’m not so focused on any of that, other than finishing a story I have in progress, to go with a painting that’s already done. Instead, I’m going to spend time improving my processes, including finding an Adobe Lightroom replacement. My subscription ran out and I decided not to renew. I’ll have to monitor my credit card account carefully as Adobe is known for charging you even when you cancel.
Some free alternatives:
- Darktable — Raw image editing, said to have a steep learning curve, some cataloging capability.
- RawTherapee — Similar to Darktable.
- Apple Photos — Hadn’t thought of using this as an alternative! But not that smooth when I’m taking photos with my camera rather than my phone.
- DigiKam — For cataloging images, I’ve read on Reddit that neither RawTherapy nor Darktable is a good standalone solution for image organization. This could be a good alternative.
I’m doing a demo of capturing art images and cataloging them for Heritage Guild in mid October so I need to figure out my own tools and process before then.
In just a cursory review, I’m wondering about sticking with Apple Photos for image cataloging, but improving my processes around it.
Anyway, there’s plenty of reading and research to do before deciding. Here’s an article about migrating your photo library from Apple Photos and Lightroom to open source. Might be a good starting place.
Tomorrow is Labor Day, and that makes it feel like back to school time. It’s also the start of September, one of my favorite months of the year. The weather starts to cool down. People get serious about their jobs again. I was already serious about my art and writing project, but now I’m really going to buckle down.
In my Tarot readings lately, The Hierophant keeps showing up. This card is typically interpreted as suggesting societal order and rules, or a person in your life who imposes them. In my case I think it is urging me to create my own order and rules instead, around both my personal and professional activities.
In Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack writes of The Hierophant, also known as the Emperor:
More personally the Emperor can signify a time of stability and order in a person’s life, hopefully opening up creative energy. He also can indicate a specific person who holds great power, either objective or emotional, over the subject. This is very often the father, but it can also be a husband or lover, especially for those people tho treat their lovers as substitute fathers to whom they surrender control of their lives. I have seen readings so dominated by the Emperor that all of life’s possibilities become stunted and unfulfilled.
I have, over the past few weeks, been dealing with a family situation where I felt overly controlled by my (perceptions of) my relationship with my father, so that’s an interesting angle on the frequent appearance of this card.
But perhaps that is just the other side of the message here: (1) Become your own Hierophant and (2) Don’t bow to the influence, perceived or real, of other Hierophants.
Pollack continues:
As the card of personal qualities, the Emperor can indicate the ability to defend one’s territory, to create firm boundaries and vigorously maintain them. He symbolizes a rationalist approach to issues, one that values analysis and measurement over emotion and intuition.
This is the interpretation of this card I want to focus on this week. I want to improve upon not just my boundaries, but approach my life with more rigor and routines.
In her book Tarot for Change, Jessica Dore offers another interpretation of this card. “The Hierophant is and must be symbolic of spiritual life, of the engagement with and interpretation of the sacred, that which transcends the material realm,” she writes.
That makes me think of how I’d like to incorporate a meditation practice into my daily routine. I used to meditate regularly, especially when I lived in Hawaii more than twenty years ago. I’ve been listening to dharma talks frequently lately and keep thinking, “I’ve got to start meditating again.”
Meditation isn’t necessarily spiritual even though it comes from Buddhism. It is more like exercise for your mind, strengthening your ability to let go of the three kleshas (poisons) of ignorance, attachment, and aversion.
So, this coming week is all about order and structure: improving upon my photo cataloging processes, adding in daily meditation, upgrading my daily and weekly routines.
I love September! Do you?