Play – a quarterly review!
In January I wrote about an alternative to the traditional New Year resolution – http://bilsblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/not-new-year-resolution.html and chose Play as my word.
This operates at several levels:
- related to the goal it means ‘work less and play more’. As I move towards retirement I need to shift away from work as a total pre-occupation. I enjoy what I do and spend ‘leisure time’ reading and researching around my job, but this will be redundant when I retire so I need to start replacing that activity with others.
It’s been a busy time at work but I have managed to work less at home, probably because I’m too tired in an evening to do much! I have deliberately spent less time reading/blogging around the day job, which has meant that I’ve managed to contribute to this blog more regularly – and I know I’ve benefitted from that.
-
I spend a lot of time at the PC prevaricating and know that I need to be doing something more positive – I need to play (aka stitch!)
I have definitely spent more time in my sewing room than ever before and have finally (though not necessarily permanently!) conquered my inability to stitch/play for extended periods of time. I am now regularly losing myself in my work – no artificial cut-offs after 20-30 minutes!
- when I play (aka stitch), I want to experiment more. I’m taking small steps but doing this on my own seems to mean that there are never any giant leaps or sideways steps going on.
Hmmm – not so sure about this, but perhaps this is a hard judgement to make about yourself. What I have done is had a re-think about the definition of play, or more to the point have thought about how children play. And the key here is repetition – the same game, the same characters, the same toys over and over with little variation until something else catches their attention.
I think I”ve been quite hard on myself, not allowing myself to re-use colour combinations or techniques because I wouldn’t be ‘pushing’ myself. But if I’m really going to play not only do I have to give myself permission to re-use ideas I need to actively encourage myself to do so!
I can really relate to your second and third points, VBG. I haven’t “been to business” as my Nanna called outside work for a few years now. Not by choice I might add, rather due to health issues. Anyway, I spend WAYYYYY too much time on the PC, but I do a lot of historic costume research and textile research there, so it’s not as if I’m playing computer games or such. I only stitch out of neccessity lately, for a class I’m taking or teaching, or a workshop. That’s very sad isn’t it? I’m doing the TIF challenge very slowly as a consequence, and feel very guilty. But when I do get the chance, I enjoy my stitching very much. I think my kid’s class has the right idea, they just get in and stitch without delay and sometimes the results are just outstanding ! I wish I still had that child-like enthusiasm, oh well. Blogging has it’s pros and cons, “forcing” me to produce something on a regular basis can’t be all bad.
Thanks for sharing,
Hooroo,
Christine
http://missmuffettwo.blogspot.com/
Hi Christine
It’s hard to remember the ‘inner child’ isn’t it? As adults we carry so much guilt with us.
When people ask, rather judgementally I feel, about how much time I spend on the PC I liken it to TV viewing time which I don’t indulge in, and suddenly that’s OK. It’s recognised as an accepted adult activity!
If you are enjoying your TIF challenges then does it matter at what speed you progress?