Play and Explore

Last month, when I finally overcame my fears and reached a big goal, I felt giddy the next day . . . I tried to write, but instead I pretty much explored the net . . . I saw an interesting article and followed a link, then another and another. The next thing I knew I’d crossed the world – from underwater treasure hunting in the South Seas, to listening to a piece of music composed to play for a thousand years – with no notes repeating.

I looked at skeletons and read ghost stories, admired castles and art deco townhouses. I searched for a tearoom that looked “just right” inside for one of my settings (still haven’t found one). I explored islands with volcanoes, outer space and a fly’s eye.

Obviously, my mind needed to rest, and the inner child who I think of as my most creative self, needed to play.

Pretty pictures (pre-Raphaelites), kitties and puppies and foxes (well, I write about telepathic animal companions too). How some dogs have problems with stairs. How scary animals look without fur.

How people danced through the ages, set to “Uptown Funk.” Historical film heroes, set to “Sharp Dressed Man.”

I absorbed all these – ideas and visualizations and places and items that will lie in my subconscious and might, someday, spark an idea when melded with another idea that I might write a line or two about.

That didn’t matter. What mattered was getting a sense of exploring STUFF that I never knew about, some scientific theories that I will never understand (yes, particles or waves…). And maybe I won’t use this or that or t’other, but it took my mind down pathways I don’t often go (English gardens, Zen tearooms, castle ramparts, meteorite craters, birds sitting on telephone lines as notes of music).

Yes, it made me giddy, but it was also extremely fun, and reminded me of an important truth, which is, let yourself go sometimes – DO explore the internet for hours see the wonder that is our world and human imagination and ideas.

Or get away from that computer and take a trip to the mountains and look at a meadow, hike a trail, find a waterfall. Explore a ghost town or a mesa or a cliff dwelling or a graveyard. (I’ve been in a lot of graveyards these last few years, ask me about my favorites). Experience something different than is in your usual route. Step outside your bounds.

Or take a look at the town around you and places you wouldn’t ever go (like, for me, a hockey game), or roller derby, or ballet (yes, ballet, men, you know those male dancers are strong and sexy, don’t you?). When was the last time you were in the Art Museum? How about at Buffalo Bill’s grave? Ruby Hill? Canoeing down the Platte? At a stand up comedy show?

What about meditation at a Buddhist center? Or drumming? Or Universal dance? Or attending a Society for Creative Anachronism heavy fighting practice (being a spectator is free).

On and on and on and on. Be open to wonder. Connect with new people.