Sweet, sweet...

...nothing. We spent a few days in Halls Gap caravan park recently and I had some quiet time for pondering. While knitting actually. I wonder if I'll finish anything this year?
In my knit, purl meditative state I began to realize the importance of this state of mind and the way we live in a society largely ignorant and skeptical of mental health maintenance. We are force fed constant gack about obesity, exercise and diet. About being beautiful and being healthy. It's practical maintenance of the self. It feels proactive. Yet, what we really crave is some space. Some peace. A little bit of nothing in a busy, busy world. Because after all, physical health only accounts for half the equation. The other half is the mind.
Our desperate need for quiet holidays and escape from the real world is a subconscious desire to look after our minds. While we beat ourselves up about eating too much, drinking too much and not exercising enough our poor little brains are unravelling and we don't seem to pay heed until we are sitting in a corner rocking back and forth murmuring to ourselves.
While I sat in my daggy camping chair, plastic mug of coffee in the inbuilt, armrest drink holder beside me and clicking away at my scarf (which is still only 4cm long) I let my kind wander. Off I went to the Bahamas. And what a healthy, restorative place it is. Being me, the space I'd created in my quiet brain instinctively became filled with creative thoughts. I began to think up all manner of clever ideas. It's the best way, too. It was creative thinking with perspective. Creative thinking without the pressure of it being wedged between hanging washing and kinder pick up. It was the kind of creative thinking that got me excited about making and doing.
So, I'm giving myself permission to do nothing without the guilt that I should be physically productive. A bit of mental health maintenance IS productive. And we should all do a bit more of it. Where does your mind go when you let it wander?



Much of my creative impulse is being satisfied in my post renovation, decoration frenzy. In between the box unpacking and furniture moving (sometimes I wonder if moving house would be easier) I've been doing little projects. Clever little things which are satisfying and fun. Things that are great for sharing here. Like blackboard painting the fridge (pictured), which worked a treat. I'm thinking they should come standard, black board painted, out of the factory. Too cool (oops, pun, sorry).
The next job is the little tin cabinet (pictured) Which I paid an outrageous $5 for in an opshop. I've painstakingly scraped the silicon off the front which held the mirror on. I hate silicon. But now my blank canvas awaits a polka dot cross and some polka dot shelf lining, then, ta da! Medicine cabinet.
Where buntyandsars is concerned I'm letting her sneak into my thoughts at her own will. I'm not scheduling her in at the moment. I'm letting the low pressure, wandering mind approach to rule. It feels good. It feels refreshing. It makes me want to draw. It makes me want to get stuck into creating my new workspace...just as soon as I finish unpacking all this flipping boxes...