Before I retired, I read, I garden, went to book stores, greenhouses, I colored/sketch, and had a different bakery for each day of the week, and the special one's every other week. Now reading and gardening, eating bake goods, I get by, however the sketching not so hot at. So I am reading about how to use the right side of our brain with art, the blending of colors, what sort of pencil I need. I have bought every brand of colored pencils, plain, water colore, or prismacolor, Nicole, pro, derwent, Pitt pastel and on and on I go. I have boughten a dozen books on how to draw. I asked my younger sister about many things when it comes to drawing. I have come to realize that some parts of the brain will need to wait before it can do some of these items. At least my stick people are colorful!
I love to read and I buy books like I buy color pencils.If I read a book a week, I will never have enough time to read them all and that is reading the books I have at home. But off I go to the library or I go to a store that sells only new books and I cannot help it, I love used book stores. I cannot walk out that door without having that book in my hand. The moment I walk out of that door, I regret that moment, of not purchasing. I my not read it cover to cover but I need it for research. Research that I am going to do next spring, or for that question I am not sure how to answer, or for a quiz on TV. YES, I will need that book.
I know you can go online to look at books, to buy books, but and that is a large but, I love the smell of books, the feel of the paper, the dust it collects and it completes every room in a house.
Every garage sale, pawn shop, auction, estate sales have that one book you will need. It is the same with a garden center, I stop at everyone I come across. Just ask the boys, every vacation was around a nursery with that one Hosta I want to look at, just to look. Vactions also were about going to each bakery in every town. You can learn so much about a town's makeup by just what type of goodies they sell.
When in autumn the trees turn to the warmth colors of reds, browns, yellows, greens, oranges. This turning of colors is simply the sap heading into the core of a tree. Sap in Sanskrit means essence that which brought the tree to life. When the leaves fall it is not death just a way to reenergize after the gloomy days of winter
So when I have some bad days, weeks, or months I remind myself to just drive and see what baked good is around that corner, what dusty old book laying in a corner of a garage and the smell of that one plant to complete my room, my garden, my tummy, my leaf. With the running of the sap, I energize my core.
With a wink and a nod HeWal