Nothing-ing.
My mother has always been a trend spotter. When I was younger, she’d see meta trends emerging at least two to three years in advance. And once I finally figured out that she was almost always right when she called something coming ahead of time, it frustrated me to no end that her talents weren’t applied in a more lucrative setting. Even more so when I got into advertising and learned that trend spotting could be an actual job.
And then there’s me.
It takes me forever to adopt new technology. I prefer tried & true over novel & new. And I’m consistently “discovering” trends at least a few years after they’ve happened.
I’m late to the game again. I’ve only just stumbled upon niksen, the Dutch art of doing nothing with a purpose, which was cool enough to make the New York Times in 2019.
Whatever. I’m here now.
We’ve been spending long days doing a lot of purposeful nothing-ing.
It’s pretty easy in a small Idaho town far enough north that the sun’s been shining for 15ish hours a day.
Aside from a few meetings and client calls, the only truly pressing task I’ve had lately is reapplying sunscreen every 90 minutes or whenever Nicolas’s splashing in the kiddie pool has worn it off.
Life at “Grandma & Grandpa camp” is pretty easy.
And I didn’t realize how much I needed the break.
We are — for lack of a better way to put it — extremely privileged by Indian standards (and even by American standards, for that matter). Still, there’s a reason Joe’s posting to Delhi comes with a hardship differential.
Having access to clean air and large swaths of “yard carpet*” for Nicolas to run through was something I didn’t miss until I saw how much joy rolling down a grassy hill brought to him.
Let alone quality time with water toys, more arts & crafts projects than I could conjure on my own, a steady flow of household chores he can “help” with, and s’mores after dinners on the patio.
It’s almost tempting enough to want to stay here.
But I’m not a novice camper. I know that the long hot days don’t last forever. The sun starts setting and it’ll eventually be time to wash the bug spray and sunscreen off. As much fun as it’s been, the transition back to “real” life is coming.
I’m almost ready.
Almost.
Pass me another graham cracker, will ya?
*You’d be right if you guessed that Nicolas had no idea what to call a lawn.
