Home And Family

So, next year I am going to learn Spanish – I’ve been putting this off for years- and I’m going to have a go at watercolor painting. That’s on top of all the other things I am already doing: piano and drama teaching, doll house making and renovating, traveling, going to the theater, working on amateur musical shows, writing for two or three websites, and trying to make a bit of extra money! (oh, and reading, spending time with my family, and planning for a summer camp).

So why Spanish and watercolors? Well, I’m really quite good at picking up languages and think Spanish feels good on the tongue. It also sounds good, and is the second language of North America generally. So I really feel it will be a good thing to learn it. I have a friend who is doing so and she asked me if I’d like to join her to encourage her, and I thought, why not? And research into the brain indicates that learning a language is like a workout for a brain. And, as I have said before, a fit brain is what I need for living as long as I intend.

But why watercolor painting? Well, I have, in the past, proved to be very bad at that. And it rankles. I hate being so bad at something that I feel slightly queasy when I think about trying to do it. That’s pathetic! So I am going to have a go. I’ve bought myself a little set of paints and some brushes and a pad. It came with an instruction book, and I’ve begun on the first lessons. This bit is with a pencil; it’s drawing (shriek of horror) and I cannot draw. But wait a minute – when did I last try? Why did I stop?

Well, the truth is, I have another go at drawing about every six or seven years. Each time I am dissatisfied with the results and I stop. It’s been the same ever since school, when I was asked to sit for the others to draw since I was rubbish at it and enjoyed reading a book anyway. And, yes, I enjoyed sitting there in not always comfortable poses, reading and being drawn. They always let me keep my clothes on – wise of them I reckon! And I sat still and was useful. Got a lot od books read too!

But I just hate failure. I can embroider, produce really good cross stitch, make dolls’ houses and write poetry. I have been writing the words for songs with my son for many years, and I have written plays for kids to perform. But my brother and sister, all those years ago, could do the ‘Art’ thing. And I couldn’t. It shouldn’t have mattered, but it did. Does it still, I wonder? Does my brother still draw at all? I doubt it. My sister still paints though.

I have begun to take photographs and some of them are quite good. I am egotistical enough to print them myself using the computer and frame them and hang them in my house. I even force some of them on friends and family as presents. And I am really proud of them. But they are not things I have really personally created. For that I have to learn to draw and do watercolors.

That kind of activity requires a level of contemplation which I seldom allow myself. I am always on the go. But I do enjoy thinking and I guess I could do both at the same time. So that’s what I’ll do. I’ll draw up a timetable and plan to leave at least two two-hour slots a week for that. And I will stick to it. What with that, and the two, two-hour slots I will need for the Spanish, I will have to rearrange the day to have 26 hours, I guess. Or stop watching most of the television programs I watch now and stop playing Brain Training on my DSLite. I’ll make time somehow.

What I really need is someone to cook and clean for me. Now, that’s a thought. Silly one, though. So I’ll just have to learn to take less time cooking and cleaning. Won’t that be a hardship?