Walking in this World—Week 1, Day 1

What the Hell, I Might as Well!

Week 1, Day 1.  Here we go again!

I got up this morning, wrote my morning pages, made pancakes (from scratch) for breakfast then caught the bus into town, got off part of the way there and took a brisk, crisp 30 minute walk through Kelvingrove Park.  I walk twice or thrice a day in bursts of 20-40 minutes depending on where I am and what I'm doing, but as part of Walking in this World I intend to vary my routine and do something different every day.  The park is one of my favourite spots though; expect lots of mentions and photographs in the coming months.

We're presented with a nice, gentle task to ease us in to the first week, which Julia introduces by saying:

“Often we experience a sense of powerlessness because we do not see any direct action that we can take to concretely alter our sense of being stuck.”

Oh so true.  I have a tendency to get stuck in a mind-rut, coming back again and again to a feeling of helplessness as I'm unable to pursue some of the big-picture things I'd like to be doing while I'm financially constrained.  This task serves as a timely reminder that there are in fact lots of things I can still do whenever I feel like it that will spur me back into creative action.  It's aptly named What the hell, you might as well to remind you you can just do something creative for the sake of it.

Here's my list of 20 small things I could do whenever I feel stuck or unmotivated:

1. Write a poem in my journal.
2. Bake biscuits.
3. Bake cakes.
4. Bake anything!
5. Share my baking with others.
6. Make a pot of soup.
7. Prepare my favourite meal.
8. Make a photo album or collage (I don't have any at all!).
9. Clean up my old SLR cameras from my photography studies.
10. Take more pictures.
11. Re-pot my Madagascan dragon tree.
12. Read a play.
13. Write sketches for fun.
14. Act out the sketches.
15. Send postcards to friends.
16. Go postal, write long-hand letters to friends.
17. Make a playlist of my favourite music.
18. Light candles and listen to my playlist.
19. Practice holding my authoharp (zither, pictured below) and strum the few chords I know until I get better.
20. Sing!

I deliberately didn't include a few of my favourite free things to do such as brewing coffee, walking in the park, visiting the library or walking round the galleries as I already do these things most days.

What would your 20 small creative actions be?  How about picking 5 for starters and sharing them in the comments below?

K