{"id":2600,"date":"2017-01-12T16:29:27","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T16:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/?p=2600"},"modified":"2017-01-12T16:29:27","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T16:29:27","slug":"january-as-negative-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/january-as-negative-space\/","title":{"rendered":"January as Negative Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have come to treasure the month of January.<\/p>\n

\"cup

In Process<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a92017 Elizabeth Fram<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u00a0can trace my affinity back to college when, rather than an extended holiday break, January comprised\u00a0what was then called “Winter Term”. It was four\u00a0weeks sandwiched between semesters when we\u00a0studied only one course intensively. Distilling concentration\u00a0to a single subject made the month seem more expansive than any other in the year.<\/p>\n

\"cup

In Process<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a92017 Elizabeth Fram<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, even though well beyond school, that sentiment has stayed with me, though for different reasons. I’m relieved\u00a0the busy holidays are behind us and enjoy that there seem to be less commitments, the weather is conducive to buckling down in the studio, and there are even leftover Christmas cookies in the freezer!<\/p>\n

\"cup

In Process<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a92017 Elizabeth Fram<\/p><\/div>\n

Indulging in an afternoon of reading on January 2nd, I bumped into strategist \/ entrepreneur \/ writer Tr\u00e9 Wee’s blog post “52 key learnings in 52 weeks”<\/a>. #9 on his list, a quote from poet Judy Brown’s<\/a> poem Fire,<\/em>\u00a0is his “learning” that hit home most directly.<\/p>\n

“What makes the fire burn is the space between the logs” * \u00a0 (to which Wee adds, “Negative space is not something we see intuitively, but cultivating empty pockets of space is hugely important in our live (sic) if we want to become more creative and effective.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"cup

In Process<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a92017 Elizabeth Fram<\/p><\/div>\n

It made me realize that what I have come to love about the four weeks of January is they embody a form of the negative space to which Brown refers in her poem. It is\u00a0a welcome time for regrouping and recharging.<\/p>\n

\"cup

Morning Musing, detail<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a92017 Elizabeth Fram<\/p><\/div>\n

Ironically, January\u00a0often results in becoming my most productive month each year. As Brown says, “it is fuel, and the absence of fuel together, that make fire possible”. In that light, I would urge you to consider how you too might benefit from seeing and appreciating the\u00a0negative spaces that surround you.<\/p>\n

*Read Judy Brown’s poem Fire<\/em> in full here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Morning Musing<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a92017 Elizabeth Fram<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have come to treasure the month of January. I\u00a0can trace my affinity back to college when, rather than an extended holiday break, January comprised\u00a0what was then called “Winter Term”. It was four\u00a0weeks sandwiched between semesters when we\u00a0studied only one course intensively. Distilling concentration\u00a0to a single subject made the month seem more expansive than any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51],"tags":[422,418,420,423,424,419],"class_list":["post-2600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-negative-space","tag-cup-saucer","tag-january","tag-judy-brown","tag-morning-musing","tag-negative-space","tag-tre-wee"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5kO5z-FW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2600"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2621,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions\/2621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}