In a recent post, I wrote about how I'm making a shift back this season to writing about things that are close. At least starting there. It is a returning, because I used to write about the smallest of details: what I saw on my desk as I studied, the smell of the air when I walked outside, the closeness and vastness of the space between me and my babies.
It is my own potion making, this sort of writing.
I recently finished a book called, "How To Do Nothing" by Jenny Odell, and if you have seen me or spoken me lately, I have likely mentioned this book to you. Her introduction is titled, "Surviving Usefulness" and she makes the case that we need to get over this idea that everything needs to have utilitarian value. When this is the lens through which we see everything, we can't help judge things by what they can contribute, how much money they can make, or how many people it can attract. Only when we can see things for what they really are, and put the emphasis on the seeing, not the object, will we be able to understand the true value of things and have deep gratitude for it all.
It's exercises in attention rather than usefulness that I'm going for here, not just with my writing, but in any creative endeavor - photography, sketching, and music.
Also, as of the most recent post, for the first time in my blogging career, I've changed the font I use here. Inconsequential! but a pivot.
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