New Experiences

I told one of my friends today that she should go and do something that she had never done before.
When I said that, I was actually thinking of something exciting - like finding her way from one side of Shanghai to the other by public bus. Thats something that I like doing. I think part of me was actually saying it to myself because I often feel that I haven't been able to get out and do things like that. Sure, its not impossible, but its just not the same when you have kids in tow.

Later in the afternoon, as I was waiting around for the doctor (Aaron had to go again), I remembered that I may not have done any exciting new things, like learn how to sail a boat, but I did try my hand at a few smaller, but still new, endeavors. I made my first dress, made a crochet cardigan for Adrian and embroidered for the first time. Recently, I started cueing (calling the dance steps) at my clogging classes.

The enjoyment from each of those experiences was feeling that I was exploring something that I had absolutely no idea about. I had to research, try things out, make mistakes and do it again. With the cueing, I found new enjoyment in clogging because those dances that I could do without even thinking about became tricky again because I had to call out the steps a beat before doing them.

Its so easy to fall into the rut of pushing through the chores of each day and then slacking off each night with the excuse that day was long and tiring. So, I'm not going to be ambitious here (like committing to 101 things in 1001 days), I'm going to start off with a commitment to gain one new experience each month. I'd love for it to be one of those really exciting ones like going hang gliding but it probably will be more along the lines of learning how to juggle. I don't think I'll count things like going to a new restaurant as a new experience. Hopefully, I can remember to do this.

What about you? Try anything new lately? What would you like to try out?