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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Thursday Thoughts

I'm going to try and post prompts weekly, in case you need some inspiration for your own blog.  Or if you just like answering questions.  Let's get started.

Prompt:  How do you recharge?

I read.  I sleep.  I knit.  I write.  I make lists.  I listen to music.  Basically, if it's quiet and has a sort of rhythm to it, I can recharge.

Reading recharges me because I can escape into another character's life.  Whether or not that life is pleasant has nothing to do with it.  I can have adventures that I would never get to have in the real world.  I can enjoy the politics of a steampunk kingdom at war with giant insects.  I can solve a mystery using cupcakes and cats.  I can control the weather or grow up in a New York slum.  Basically every advertisement for reading a book ever is why reading recharges me.

I sleep.  This seems a little obvious, but there it is.  I love naps.  I'll outright tell my daughter "you need to take a nap so Mama can take a nap too."  Naps are more recharging to me than sleeping through the night, mostly because they feel more decadent.  Spending some of my precious time, especially if it's sans daughter, asleep...not cleaning or organizing, working on my business, or folding laundry.

Knitting has saved my life.  Long before I was diagnosed with an anxiety problem, it kept me from going insane.  Even if I wasn't actually knitting, but just squishing yarn between my fingers would help relieve tension.  With knitting, I can feel that sitting on the couch for an episode of television is productive because we always need more handmade socks.  I feel accomplished when something is done.  I feel the whole world is open to me when I'm ready to choose another project.  And I feel a little closer to heaven when I walk into a yarn store.

I write because I enjoy making connections with people about important things more than anything else in the entire world.  I like making people's lives better in any way.  I like helping people get to understand themselves and other people.  I like getting my own incredibly loud thoughts out of my head and somewhere they at least appear ordered.  This is the same reason I make lists.

Finally, music.  I have it on a lot in our house.  Usually Spotify or the iTunes radio of our Apple TV.  And usually classical or jazz, sometimes indie folk.  It soothes me.  The sound gives the illusion there are other adults around for me to interact with.  My daughter loves dancing to it and I love dancing with her.


Prompt inspiration from this article: How We Mend

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