An older friend of mine once remarked that life got to be the same thing over and over, so it was important to try many different things.
I could not at the time appreciate her perspective. With the hubbub of three young children under our roof, heavy involvement in the world of volunteering, and a rich social life built around other families doing the same thing, our personal world was in constant, exciting flux. The children made every day seem so long, though paradoxically the years flew by so fast.
Now peer conversations circle the dark mystery of what lies ahead, what options we might exercise should various conditions of health and circumstance prevail. Do we stay put, move, sail off into the sunset, or stick around to see what the children do? It is worrying, this uncertainty, without the familiar structure that took decades to erect.
I am tempted to fill every moment with activity, to accumulate pressure just to feel as I have always felt. Then I remembered the words of my dear old friend, her admonition to keep trying diff erent things. It may seem reckless at this stage of life, but constant practicality, fi rst cousin to being predictable, just sucks the fun out of everything. With great joy, I took the leap. I bought myself a KitchenAid Mixer.
Tantalizing is the world of appliances we don’t truly need. Better still to discover that the thing you don’t really need is available in myriad colors with a bevy of attachments. On sale.
Making tartlets, cookies, pizza dough and pasta may not sound terribly exciting, but if you can admit to being bored by restaurant food, you will understand my glee. The opposite of saving time, being over-busy, earning points for the longest bucket list, or providing fodder for crowd admiration, I just let myself do something I had always wanted to do.
Creative times lie ahead. There should be plenty to share. (c)
