Time for Tapas?
In the last couple weeks I have been working frantically on making slippers/socks. They are a kind of knitted hybrid, too heavy to be socks, but squishy enough that I can’t really call them slippers. What I can call them is appreciated.
With the family health issues I talked about last week, I’ve been feeling bad about not helping with patient care. The fact that we are thousands of miles away and would mostly be in the way means staying where we are for now is the proper thing to do, but it still feels like I should be doing more.
Enter the slippers. Both patients have issues with cold feet, and wanted some way to keep their feet warm. In the grand scheme of things it isn’t much – and any of us could easily buy warm socks or slippers – but I was asked if I could make some and I jumped in with both feet. (Sorry! {Not really.})
It made me feel useful, and they have been gratefully received. I get regular updates that they are enjoying their new slippers. So far I have shipped six pair (with another pair ready to go on Monday) in about two weeks.
So what does this have to do with creativity? And tapas?
Well, tapas are small plates, appetizers if you prefer. They are meant to be sampled and shared. Just like these slippers.
The slipper pattern I chose was deliberately simple and quick to produce. I wanted something small, something that wouldn’t satiate my appetite for creating, but just give me a taste, possibly whet my appetite for more, and I wanted something I could share.
These are simple and make up quickly. They are exactly what was needed right now.
This quick and easy slipper was exactly what I needed in the moment.
These family members have some much more intricate and time-consuming items I’ve made for them. They have blankets that took literally hundreds of hours to complete, and nearly broke me with the shipping costs. They have books dedicated to them, and I’ve cooked them complicated meals and handmade desserts. I’ve created for them both permanent and transient manifestations of my creativity and my love.
But this time what they wanted, what they asked for, was a simple pair of slippers to keep their feet warm.
They didn’t want a five-course meal with a breathtaking dessert, they wanted tapas.
Yes, I went above and beyond, creating multiple pairs for both the patients and their caretakers, but I gave them simple, quick, and functional.
And sometimes that is enough.
All too often we get caught up with the possibilities – the elegant, expansive, expensive, time-consuming, extravagant potential projects – when we need to step back and try something simple.
That is one of the beauties of retirement. The time and space to try something new; to start simple and learn to tackle the more complex. To test our interest by making something basic and find out if we enjoy the process enough to devote time to developing our skill set so we can tackle something more complex. To spend a few hours knitting a simple pair of slippers to find out if we want to invest weeks or months on a sweater or blanket.
To see if the process holds our interest long enough for that larger project.
Now is your time to experiment, to sample the things you might want to try, to push your limits and find the places you want to go. To challenge yourself to find that complex, time-consuming project you want to tackle.
It’s all up to you – your creativity, your passions, your amusement.
You get to choose, and remember that you can choose whatever you want from the banquet of creativity.
Even if it’s tapas.