{"id":1834,"date":"2020-04-22T00:08:10","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T00:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/suewoolfe.com.au\/pages\/?p=1834"},"modified":"2020-04-22T12:38:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T12:38:15","slug":"day-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suewoolfe.com.au\/pages\/day-35\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 35"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written 22 April, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Shelley in New York, now the epicentre of death, writes:<\/p>\n


Today we took a great hour long walk in Central Park. The daffodils are coming up, yellow petals around a bright orange horn. The birds\u2014blue jays, red breasted robins, and even a lone cardinal are plumper and calmer than I have ever seen them. There was a lone female duck sleeping outside a pathetically small puddle, very fire from the large reservoir and the ponds in the park. I wonder why she there and looking so unconcerned?\u00a0
My mind feels alert and Alejandro is in a good mood, therefore I am happy. In these times, I have relearned how little outside stimulation I need to feel joy and purpose. In the hustle and bustle of life in New York City these last 20 years I had forgotten that about myself.\u00a0
Alejandro and I have ratcheted down our news consumption and upped our playfulness and curiosity, our creative pleasures, our kindness to ourselves and others, and love. Always love. \u00a0Sometimes now when I awake at 5 in the morning, I imagine myself a gigantic whale rising up and spinning around and around in the ocean, flippers open wide, and singing at the top of my lungs.<\/em><\/div>\n
Oh to be a better mammal than we.<\/em><\/div>\n

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Love,<\/p>\n

Shelley<\/p>\n

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I’m realising here that I go to bed happy on the days I learn a useful skill. So today, for the first time,with a cordless drill with a spade bit, \u00a0I drilled holes in the bottom of a big plastic box which I found under the house- that treasure trove. I’m planning an extra veggie garden, and I’m learning to love tools! (The other day I was trying to lift some heavy compost, and GG, gardening fork in hand, explained the principle of leverage. I was so excited.)<\/p>\n

My plan: I’ll fill it with good soil- not the soil here, because no matter how I pick through it, it hides feral seeds. Dy texted to say he’ll be back on Friday – I ran down to \u00a0the cabin to tell GG, we were\u00a0so relieved!- and did we want any shopping? So I, learning to say yes to favours, another first for my life, asked for 2 bags of potting mix. (I wonder how they sieve out feral seeds?)<\/p>\n

Then I’ll take the new soil inside the \u00a0newly holed plastic box complete with its potting mix soil out across the mud to the spare, floating pontoon. Because it’s out of range of the beetling cliff behind us, sunshine pours on it through the morning and two hours more in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Then I’ll replant the poor little lettuce seedlings, currently crammed in the veggie garden and lolling lethargically in the shade.<\/p>\n

Or should I replant them in the box before they go on their river journey? Hmmm….<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile: ten minutes in the day of two courting herons: is it to be a how-do-you-do or a life-long love?<\/p>\n

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Then at last our little video uploads to You Tube after 48 hours: I’m pleased because I passionately want everyone to remember their creativity. You’ll find a great happiness when you do. It’s simply a matter of thinking the way you did naturally when you were four or five, before school insisted you think analytically as well as creatively at the same time- and by doing this, trying to use two different and contradictory pathways. If you’re interested in this, please tell me in a comment, and I’ll know you want more. This aren’t my beliefs, or my theories: \u00a0I’m a nerd who in the wee hours, follows the latest neuroscience research into creativity.<\/p>\n