The other night, I was relaxing and watching TV. It’s gotten to be a pretty common evening practice for me. Sometimes I’ll color. Sometimes I will knit (I have been working on a baby blanket for 1 1/2 years). But it’s not often I do anything different…well, other than bills (insert eye roll). The only time I deviate from that is when there’s an awesome thunderstorm and I curl up with a book and listen to the storm roll by. I think I have written about that. But, why wait for a storm. Why do I wait for storms to get back to things I love?
You see, it’s not just reading. I wait for snow storms to pull out a good jigsaw puzzle. I haven’t worked on my photo albums in years, but when I did it, I would usually wait for a rainy day to work on pages of family memories. Sometimes I get so caught up in going out with my friends and family that I forget to stop and enjoy my hobbies. And I can’t help but wonder who else feels the same way. What did you used to love doing that you just haven’t made time for? I have skeins and skeins of yarn in my basement just waiting to be turned into something beautiful. I must have at least 5000 sheets of scrapbooking paper and stickers and die cuts to much the thousands of pictures waiting for me to tell their story. Scrapbooking was a tough one. I stopped working on albums when I got separated. I was working on the most amazing family vacation, spanning the entire length of Rt. 66 (from Chicago to Santa Monica Pier). I couldn’t bear to look at the pictures. It was too painful. But now, well I recognize how awesome that trip was and am hoping to complete it one day. What a keepsake for the kids.
I hardly read anymore. I love books…real books. And I love to curl up with a good book. I tend to doze as I read, but it’s so relaxing.
Why? Why, when I decided to get back to the old me, did I give up things the old me loved? I know time is a factor. But it’s important to not give up things either. Especially when I find myself sometimes wishing I could sit down and throw a scrapbook page together.
But could the solution be do the old things you love with the old and new people in your lives? My mom loves jigsaw puzzles. I think I see some jigsaw nights in our future. I have a girlfriend that used to love to scrapbook too. Why not encourage each other to work on some albums or fun paper crafts. You know who you are. And I think most of the people in my life love to read…and they love wine. Doesn’t that mean book club? We can scramble to read the book, get together, not talk about the book, and drink wine. So you see, I don’t need to wait for a storm to come along to realize what is good in my life and what I should keep in it. I choose to keep all that amazingness in my life through the sunny days too.
I’m curious to hear from my readers. Leave a comment about what you miss doing that you used to love. How can you bring it back?
Life Adventures and Lessons From a Real Life Wonder Woman 
That’s my kind of book club…but with maybe 10 minutes of discussing the book thrown in. We had one of those in our neighborhood and sadly, the bookclub ringleader and BFF to me, passed away far too early. It fell apart. Life throws us curve balls and we duck and cover–sometimes wise as an immediate response. And I love what you are asking broadly in this post: Why do the conditions “have” to be right to give permission to break free of habitual behavior patterns–even for an afternoon? A bit of wisdom to ponder on this brisk Wednesday morning. Gratitude :O)
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Thanks so much Nancy. I know that was hard when you lost your BFF. Those curve balls are hard. And sometimes we can get derailed and feel the need to start over. I’m learning it’s not starting from scratch. It’s just finding your foundation and going back to that and redesigning the rest. Keep those amazing things and let the not so great things go. Thanks for reading.
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