Displacement therapy?
I don’t like sitting around on my backside that much.
Which makes sitting doing editing and read-throughs damned hard.
I feel a vague sense of frustration and my brain doesn’t operate as it should.
Most of my reading (of all sorts) is done either at night or at required points in the day, but I actually begrudge daylight hours spent inside – especially if the sky is clear and the breeze is a waft of air across the skin.
It’s probably why I take a year to write a book.
Or why my stitching moves forward with the speed of a snail.
I’m incapable of spending time with needle and thread during the day. There’s a form of guilt at taking the luxury.
Generally I want to be on the move, doing physical things. My mother was the same. All her creative interests took place in the evenings as she was always ‘busy busy’ during the day. I can empathise. When I’ve been ill and been required to rest, it often feels like I’m caged. I develop a kind of cabin fever.
I took a couple of hours the other day to write two blogposts but I much preferred being outside for most of the afternoon, raking autumn leaves, even though there were as many leaves down after, as when I started. I find when I’m outside and busy, my brain falls into neutral. Perhaps my creative mind works through things subconsciously.
This morning, the dog and I will walk for an hour along a hopefully deserted beach. Heaven. Pure heaven. And I couldn’t imagine for one minute being seated inside facing a computer screen, or working away with needle and thread when the sky is soft blue, the wind is less than a snuffle and the sea stretches flat and calm into the Never-Never.
If it’s raining, I’m apt to put on a coat, grab an umbrella and the dog, and stride onward, rain not withstanding. But rain, in the spirit of climate change, seems to have disappeared from our weather reports.
I do a weekly ballet class. I walk twice daily with the dog, no matter what. I garden whenever I can because I love it – the ultimate quiet. I’ve even joined a Sunday Icebreakers swimming group – heaven forbid!
These are things I do, not because I have to, but simply because I want to. Using up energy (and kilojoules).
If I’m inside, I don’t mind cleaning, cooking or ironing – it’s an activity after all and I couldn’t abide hiring someone to do it for me. I’m able enough, so what a waste of money that I can use for the business of indie-writing!
I always remember being told by a specialist once, as my joints started age-ing: ‘Use it or lose it.’ Good advice, I thought. So I do!
Most of my friends are the same – we’re a pretty active lot in our 60’s and 70’s, what with gardens, beaches and grandchildren, and we’re all apt to think that life is short and we must make as much of it as we can.
But lest you think I have ADHD – if it’s a calm day with sunshine, I can be found under the willow day- dreaming, dog lying beside the chair, both of us enjoying the Vitamin D.
Essentially however, reading and embroidery, and even writing, are night time things for when the day goes to bed and a kind of peace settles over my house. They are meditative things that wind one down to bed. Yes, even writing. My writing is meditation in black and white and strangely, my best words come in the dark hours.
Busy bee? Maybe. More displacement activity , I think…
I now have a job that means sitting at a desk. It took me two years to get used to, and still don’t like being so sedentary. At least I walk to work!
Hi Barbara. I confess I hate being sedentary. I also have an enormous fear of big backsides and old age tummies to which my family is prone. 😉 So the exercise helps with all of that. But it actually helps with the grey matter too.
It is interesting when our creativity juices decide to come to life isn’t it. You are certainly a busy beaver during the day! I admit I love to stitch no matter what time of the day and am not great at keeping up with the housework as a result! But some of my most creative times are later in the day and in the evening. And I too prefer to do computer work of an evening! Sitting outside and stitching and gardening is so much more pleasant than looking at a computer – I do that all week at work!
I’m sure my stitching would be so much better if I sat in a room lit by daylight, Catherine, but it’s not to be. The outside always calls. That said, I don’t know what I’d do without a piece to stitch for an hour or so in the evenings. It’s truly calming. I’m currently working on Anna Scott’s Mountain Goat and I’ve juts discovered that I have grown out of my love for Appleton’s. Instructor Margaret Light has introduced us to Flora and other interesting wools and I confess to liking them better. Although, Appleton’s shades are so tender and pretty.
Sounds pretty normal to me Prue….and perfect. ?
Perfect. As you say, Libby. XXXX
Your post has inspired me to pick up my game this weekend – going to stroll in the rain to drop off my library books today. I’m a drip-dry kinda girl with a new raincoat so 10 blocks is a piece of cake! Upon my return, I’ll just have to enjoy a nice cuppa 😉 And I have the last of my boxes to sort and donate from moving. I’d best get ‘er done before the nice weather arrives…maybe in June?
Enjoy your weekend – we have a long one as it’s Victoria Day in Canada.
Judy 🙂
Atta girl, Judy. Get out amongst it! 😉