A Very Productive Day at the Lake

It's Memorial Day weekend and the traditional kickoff to summer! With an extra long winter of record breaking snowfall and an extremely cold and wet spring, the warm temperatures are greatly welcomed.

Being the first nice weekend in over a month, it was tempting to stay at home and work on gardening or one of the many other chores that seem to pile up.  As is typical for me, I began the weekend with a post-it note to do list of things I wanted to accomplish.

All of the to dos were tossed aside when my husband suggested a day at the lake. Sometimes the most important thing you can do is nothing at all. To stay creative and to create work that evokes emotion, you must slow down from time to time.  Create space to observe, to breathe, to feel.

I have always sung along to this Fiona Apple song, Waltz (Better than Fine) but never subscribed to its message:

If you don't have a date
Celebrate
Go out and sit on the lawn
And do nothing
'Cause it's just what you must do
Nobody does it anymore
No I don't believe in the wasting of time,
But I don't believe that I'm wasting mine

Instead of viewing the time as being unproductive, it should be viewed as quite essential and necessary.  You never know when that quiet moment in your head will spark an idea.  The color combination of a stroll through your garden can reappear as the color story for a quilt. An interaction seen while observing the company around you will bring about a question in which to answer through paint. The point is that for me, being productive by doing nothing is something I need to remind myself. (and not by putting it on my to do list...)