Weekend Re-Cap… Fringe, Knit, Quiet

Erik took off on Friday to Portland, where I’ll be meeting him in a couple of days. In his absence I found my weekend to be unusually silent. I have to admit, I’m not naturally comfortable with silence.  I’m from a family who loves to chat.  In the second grade my report card stated that I was a “social butterfly.”  So naturally, I tend to gravitate towards group activities, full houses, clubs, guilds, study groups.  And if that isn’t enough, I almost always have CBC yammering in the background. But, every once in a while, I crave a bit of solitude. And this past weekend was definitely one of those weekends, especially since Tux wasn’t around to add a bark here and there.

 So, I decided to bake. We had a few strawberries nearing their end and some fabulous rhubarb from the market. I busted out one of my all time favorite cookbooks, Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver and began to search for a recipe. I spend way too much time flipping through this dreamy book! The photos exude the most appealing lifestyle of no-fuss, close company, and organic goods. It inspires me to do as it says and “cook my way to the good life”. Instead of baking my pies and crumbles in a pan, I’ve been digging out old jam jars and baking individual treats.  Perfect to pack for picnics. With all the silence throughout our household, I figured it was high-time I picked up the knitting needles. It’s been about 6 months and I’m only a beginner, so I was pleasantly surprised when I remembered how to do nearly everything. I’m still a bit nervous about re-starting a sweater project that has been sitting in the craft closet… hummm… maybe a few of my knitting pals from Portland can gimme a kick start To top off the shhhhhhhhh weekend, I ended up attending a Fringe Festival show by myself. For the record this was not the original plan.  Don’t get me wrong, I love venturing to a flick by myself every once in a while, but my buds confused the start time for the show and missed it.  All was OK as I was pleasantly seated next to the sweetest couple ever.
 Here are my final thoughts on alone time. With the convenience of hand-held devices, the constant demands of media, and the drive for immediacy, we are a culture who is quickly becoming less and less comfortable with silence.  I am totally one of those individuals. How many times do you check your phone, or worse yet sit at a dinner table instagramming every moment or twittering every detail? In doing so we become so completely disengaged from what is ACTUALLY occuring around us. I actually don’t do either of those things, but I certainly do waste a lot of meditative time in front of a computer, phone or iPad. My point is that we’re overly connected and surrounded by noise.  Very few of us have the skillset to be still, silent and listen. This weekend was a centering weekend. A slice of time for me to get comfortable with myself.