unsinkable Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 What about just being? Not doing, not learning or trying or exploring? What about just sitting quietly, and still, and listening to *whatever* you hear? It doesn't cost anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgehogs4 Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 I turned 50 this year and am still working at teaching myself to use my year-old digital camera (I miss my SLR 35mm!) and Photoshop - I also have been dabbling with Wheelocks (not gotten too far) and have one of the Teaching Company courses on Shakespeare. Find interesting topics and do some self-teaching! I too have taken up photography...my focus is so much more on my children, and I want to document for them the things in their lives that are valuable. I love capturing them on "film" (or pixels, or whatever it is these days). I also realize that there are things that used to be cool and now are just empty. Music, especially music by Sting for example, used to move me, but now...nada. Now I listen to his music and think, "Aw, he's just a really talented, misguided, really smart guy." This is where my faith is coming in more and more--it boils down to faith and family. nothing else really matters, so i find my greatest joy in investing fully in these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Lea Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 It hasn't helped my situation that I have hormone and and thyroid issues that my dr. is trying to, thankfully, get under control! I'll be 42 in January. For the past 2-3 years, I've really become more relaxed in a lot of areas. I don't clean and clean like I used to do. I'm trying to mentor my boys in school than be their teacher. I'm focusing on relationship more than anything. Learning and reading new things has become a focus of mine now. I'm reading some classics that I didn't read in school. Now, it has to be a classic that I am interesting in reading, not something that somebody somewhere said I "have" to read. Currently, I'm reading A Tree Grows in Brookly and Little Women. I'm thinking of ordering the Key To Fractions and also Decimals books. I've *always* struggled with these two concepts in math (thankfully, my boys use TT:). Lately, I'm desiring to understand these concepts. Up until now I could have cared less. Oh, and it's on today's agenda to go to Hobby Lobby and look at some drawing books and checking into the drawing class they offer their in the evenings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillfarm Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 (edited) Besides, holy carp, did I just see a pp say she goes out in the field to practice throwing her atlatl 3 days a week? Who sells atlatls? I need to add to my wish list! http://www.worldatlatl.org/ An atlatl is a wooden stick like thing that usually has a peg on one end to hold the end of a large projectile, some sort of device on which to anchor your finger, and sometimes a v-shaped rest at the other end to help hold the projectile. The projectiles are long (often 6-7 feet long) arrow-like things which are strangely enough called darts. Ancient people used them for hunting things like wooly mammoths. Yep, I try to get out and practice at least 3 times a week and would be out there more, time and weather permitting. For some reason I love throwing (the proper term is "casting" but that sounds silly to me, more like something to do with a net, not a giant arrow that can punch through an archery target like no body's business!). Since I started in September, I have more than quadrupled my starting score. Which wasn't really all that hard since my first score was lower than dismal. I am now all the way up to only mildly embarrassing. I sincerely hope to get a bit better before the really bad weather hits, as I want to be able to go practice at some of the indoor archery ranges and I assume there will be other people there and I hope not to absolutely shame myself. But no matter. I like throwing enough that I will do it even if I am bad at it!:D My 11yo dd started a paleo project and I am having great fun learning right alongside her. This month we will go to a museum and learn how to start fires with two sticks. Also on the agenda are tanning deer hides, making primitive pottery and baskets, knapping flint arrowheads, carving pipestone, building a primitive "hut", cooking with things like acorn or cattail flour, making jewelry out of elk's teeth and bear claws... None of which I have ever done before. But I find it all to be great fun and will continue with it as long as that is the situation. I am 49 years old. I decided on my 49th birthday that I would not let my 50th one find me a sedentary couch potato. I want to recapture some of the more adventurous spirit I had when I was younger. I felt like I had lost my perception of limitless potential somewhere along the way and I need to rekindle the spark of being enthusiastic about life. Atlatl, primitive skills, whitewater rafting, etc. are serving quite well as vehicles to take me to the place I want to be. HTH:tongue_smilie: Edited December 5, 2009 by hillfarm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.