It is 9:01 AM on Sunday May 17th, 2020. There was a gentle rain last night which combined with the usual cool temperatures makes the outdoors seem clean and fresh.
I have just finished another Lapham’s Quarterly, this one on Memory, and had intended to start writing my notes. However, I wanted to get a quick blurb down about exactly where I’m writing. As I’ve written about previously, we’ve rearranged and greatly organized many rooms of our house. One of those rooms is the little hallway on the second floor between the master bedroom and walk-in closet. We had never utilized this space and had just stuck an unused couch here which nobody ever sat on. Now, that couch is a perfect fit in the game room and we’ve moved the bookshelf, an unused recliner and end table into this hallway. What it has created is a fantastic little reading nook and it is here that I plan on writing most of my entries henceforth.
Having a nice space like this really helps increase the desire to write. As everyone knows I love a good ambiance but I had never made the connection to concentrate on making a nice place to write. It was always just the tools such as a computer and a blog while neglecting the atmosphere.
I think one of the hurdles to this realization is that I’ve always focused on having everyone in the family room. I felt that being together trumped everything as it was good for the family. Even if everyone is playing their own games or into their own electronic devices it is good to be together. What I’ve realized however is it is also mentally beneficial to also not be together all of the time. I feel slightly guilty sneaking away to my little refuge up here on the 2nd floor but I cannot read, nor write with everyone around me making noise and calling my name every 2 minutes. Here, I’m in my recliner, I have music for reading playing, there are three windows open providing fresh air and a few rays of sunlight are streaming through the leftover rain clouds above. This is a paradise for me and I cannot believe I’ve lived in this house for 10 years and now have only gotten the idea to make a space like this.
That gets me thinking about the nature of ideas in general. There must be so many great ideas that are floating around, never to be grasped and pulled into existence. If COVID-19 didn’t happen I may have never had my little reading nook. It is the accumulation of thoughts and ideas acted upon that shape entire lives. I find that most people fall into routines, habits, life-streams and in a negative sense, ruts from which most never change or escape. It is as though they sleepwalk through life. It is only in times of great change that can shake many out of these boring and worn paths. For me in my youth it was changing my entire country of residence. Now that I am mid-life it is changing up the rooms of my home. Although the difference in experiences brought between these two is quite extreme they both serve to make life a little more exciting. Changing up the routine also spurs new ideas and a momentum can build making life new and fun again. Conversely, when we fall into routines and there is no change, life becomes rather boring.
I could go on and on but I’d like to get a family update post in as well as at least touch on my thoughts on Lapham’s Quarterly – Memory. But a workout is also on the menu for this morning. I have to say, for being stuck inside I certainly have a pretty busy schedule. I would think that a time like this would allow me to just sit and watch Netflix shows on my couch. That never seems to happen.
