NaBloPoMo 2021:  Do Good, Kid

IT’S BREEEAAD!!!  Sometimes.  I am now well and truly obsessed; by the end of tomorrow I may have baked six masses of sourdough in five days.  So far I’m 2 for 4 to call them actual ‘loaves’, and the next two don’t look particularly promising, sadly.  But I am having so.  Much.  FUN!!! 

The last two posts read a little heavy, I think?  And yet in writing them I felt light.  Why is that?  Maybe because each day this past week I have had something to look forward to:  Something creative, rewarding, experimental, tactile, and sharable/social.  I joined three sourdough groups on Facebook this week—they are awesome!—full of such supportive, encouraging, knowledgeable, and generous bakers, not to mention positively mouthwatering photos!  They inspire and give me courage to keep trying, joyfully, despite repeated failures.

Looking back, what do I generally find fun?  Painting, volleyball, public speaking, pottery, TRX/HIIT, medicine…  In all of these funs, maybe it’s mostly the community that makes it so?  Team (sports and speech, medical)?  —Of course, it’s the people.  …No, it’s the relationships.  Wow, back to that again—I guess it really is my Why.  Duh-HA, again! [cosmic laughter]  It’s been 18 days—if you’ve read each post this month, have you also noticed the many recurrent, looping themes?  “If it’s important, it will be repeated…”  Seriously, and not just in one karmic lifetime, I think!

Okay, so now I know what’s naturally fun for me. But here’s a more interesting question: How do I choose fun when it doesn’t come naturally? Mount Laundry demands to be scaled. Clutter Demon dares me to slash and dismember its corpulent, multiplex potbelly. Tedium City chases back taxes from days or weeks (months?) of neglect. Just as we can choose our suffering, we can also choose our fun—turn slogging into surfing. Dance music and audiobooks help a lot, and of course going/doing with friends! …Also timeboxing: I can do anything for 15 minutes! And if I can elevate my mood to start, that just makes everything better anyway.

In that vein, I leave you with Daughter’s discovery whom I love, a college student in Wyoming who makes one minute videos of vintage recipes.  May B. Dylan Hollis lift you and give you some fun today!