Monday, February 25, 2013

Feeding the body, mind and spirit.

Daniel Day-Lewis has won the Oscar for best actor and for those who have seen him in Lincoln, he is a deserved winner of the prize. From now on when I think of the great Abe Lincoln, I will always see the character portrayed by DDL, who seems to disappear as his subject emerges from inside him - a truly great Actor.

And I was delighted to read that he does not intend to appear in another film for at least 5 years but will go to his farm in Ireland and learn how to be a Stone-Mason! This is the same guy who previously "disappeared" to Italy to learn how to be a shoemaker! No doubt he can afford to indulge in his pastimes, but for the rest of us mere mortals it's a great challenge to pause and consider what "craft" would we like to take on during the various stages that make up our lives.

Over the years I've attempted to learn the wooden folk flute with a modest degree of success. I gave up Irish dancing after deciding that touring with Riverdance wasn't for me - well actually I couldn't coordinate my feet with my brain fast enough! I went through a spell of oil painting which I really enjoyed, but it's a bit like golf and you need lots of time and a dedicated room to leave all your oils out between sessions. But it's something I intend to go back to.

We took up walking some years ago and that's one thing that we've been successful at keeping up and it has led us on some amazing adventures. We also intend to try canoeing now that we've moved to near the river once we've found the right teachers. Meditation is another practice that we are attempting: it's harder than you imagine as I find my mind wondering "hither and yon" during the sessions, but they say it improves with practice!

Then there are the languages of French (love it), Italian (romantic and you definitely need to talk with your arms) and Spanish (only lasted 8 weeks but the young brides Paella was delicious)

Finding new ways to use your brains, move your bodies and elevate your spirit are the very foods of life and I sincerely wish you are all having a veritable banquet! Let me know what you've tried.
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3 comments:

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

About every five years I take up a new passion. Some I have done twice. Let's see, there were my craft years, my fly fishing years, my dancing years, my going back to school years, my painting years, my sewing years, my running years, followed by my walking years, and now my blogging years. It is good to keep reinventing ourselves.

Anonymous said...

Oh my...I've been through knitting (And I'm SO over that), acrylics, blogging, writing poetry... who knows what's next?

Mariodacatsmom said...

Good for you and your bride having all those interests. I've done the knitting thing, counted cross stitch, and husband paints in oils (yet). Oh yes, even took piano lessons, but now the brain hardly recognizes any of the notes anymore. ha ha - I never was one for any type of dancing - two left feet get tangled. Presently I'm lucky if I can take a short walk. Have tried exercises for PD - but then my back was more irritated than ever. I am on Twitter (well Mario is) and then there are 2 blogs. For now I guess that's enough.