I challenge you – Take time out.  Experience your easy entertainment a little more creatively than usual.

Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of toys, and personal entertainment depended on individual ingenuity and imagination — think up a story and go live it for an afternoon.

— Terry Brooks

A few weeks ago, in the company of friends, I mockingly discounted a recommendation from the Reflection Booklet we use as a guide for our discussions:

Avoid easy entertainment and distraction this week.  Turn off the television and do something that gives rise to real joy.  Take a walk, work in a garden, play a musical instrument, read a book, call a friend you have been out of touch with for a long time.

— www.sccquest.org

As I read those words, I thought: Yeah, that’s NOT gonna happen… especially the “turn off the TV and take a walk”, the “work in the garden” and the “play a musical instrument” parts… what could be joyous about those activities?  Granted, some people hate TV, love to walk and/or garden, and play musical instruments in ways that are a joy to hear.  Among those people you will not find me, yours truly.

But Guess What…

No, instead of guessing let me tell you:

Although musical instruments are still safe from good ol’ Tin-Ear-Ellie, the TV, the walk and the garden???  Well, lo and behold, the very next evening, in the lull between running out of steam for doing desk-work and building up steam for fixing dinner, I found myself looking for “easy entertainment”…  And surprised myself by deciding to take a quiet stroll around the lake.

And then, wonder of wonders, after I put out the trash cans for the next day’s trash pickup, it occurred to me that IF I just trimmed the roses now, not only would I have new roses blooming in a few weeks, but even better, the trash man would take away the debris mañana.  Perfect timing!

And then, as I put out the rose clippings, I brushed up against bushes that have lately overgrown my front sidewalk, and, since I already had rose clippers in hand… well, one thing led to another and I trimmed back the bushes… and cleaned up the potted plants and then… well, you get the picture.

Against all odds, I was walking in the evening instead of “vegging out” in front of the TV; and, even more wondrous, I was gardening.  That’s a show stopper.  Because, unlike Terry Hershey, author of Soul Gardening, Cultivating the Good Life, I’ve not become a convert to the art of gardening.  Oh no! I’m in agreement with Hershey’s eleven-year-old-self who was convinced that “Gardening is drudgery.”

But, could I label all those walking and gardening “doings” as real “joy”?  Well, that might be a stretch.

The Power of Suggestion

Still, I did get some chores crossed off my never ending to-do list.  And there’s a wee bit of joy in that.  A wee bit…

I was left wondering: did the simple power of suggestion get me going even after I ran out of steam?

I suspect so. That, and the clear need for someone to get the gardening chores done! Still, I wouldn’t have believed you if you’d predicted that I’d spend that evening doing those things.

Hmmm… Maybe that’s the way to get things done.  If so, then I really should plant more seeds for doing what I already need to do.  Ya’ never know what might sprout!  Let’s see what recommendations I can let germinate: (With apologies to the authors of SCCQuest.com whom I’ve mimicked in these seedling recommendations.)

Avoid giving up on frustrating projects this week.  Turn off the whining and do something that gives rise to real progress.  Take a new tack, work standing up, play some peaceful music in the background, read some encouraging words, call on an expert if you’re stuck, but, no matter what, find a way to keep at it until you cross the finish line.

Avoid noshing this week.  Turn off the nibbling and do something that gives rise to healthy eating habits.  Walk away from the refrigerator, work in the garage, play with a puppet, draw a caricature, (Ok – take a lesson in drawing caricatures…) Plan a 3-meal-a-day menu, stock the shelves and stick to the plan.

Avoid succumbing to the blahs this week.  Turn off the boredom and do something that gives rise to real satisfaction.  Take a break, get curious about why something is the way it is – or write a poem on the refrigerator with word-magnets.  Go somewhere you love but haven’t been for a long time.

So, there we go, Ellie – seedlings are now planted deep in brain… (We’ll see what “she” does with ’em…)

Easy Entertainment and Distractions

In the meantime, here’s some frivolous, easy entertainment that’s NOT television but just might be distracting. Will it be joyful?  Well I guess that’s up to you! (Take heed Ellie: “Joyful” is up to you!)

Behind every successful woman is a substantial amount of coffee.

— Stephanie Piro

In the spirit of things I can’t imagine you’re likely to catch me doing (like gardening), I offer you 10 things you can do with coffee grounds.  Who knew this disposable trash could fulfill so many purposes?  Let me know if you actually do any of these – and if so, how well they work for you!

Use Your Old Coffee Grounds

1. Use coffee grounds to exfoliate your skin. Pat on skin, massage over skin, rinse. (Eau de Starbucks anyone?)
2. Make homemade tattoos (temporary) with henna and coffee grounds. (I can hardly wait!)
3. Increase your carrot and radish harvest by mixing seeds with dry coffee grounds before planting the seeds. (Just as soon as I get around to planting carrots and radishes…)
4. Use coffee grounds to repel ants. (Now that’s worth a trial run!)
5. Keep cats from using your garden as a kitty box by spreading used coffee grounds and orange peels throughout flower beds. (Ditto.)
6. Deodorize a freezer. Place a bowl with used coffee grounds in the freezer to remove unwanted odors. Add a few drops of vanilla to coffee grounds. (How about we skip the coffee grounds and just sprinkle some vanilla on a damp sponge?  Sure seems a wee bit neater.)
7. Rub coffee grounds on hands to get rid of smells from chopping or cutting up pungent foods. (Coffee doesn’t count as pungent?)
8. Make a used coffee grounds sachet. Fill old nylons or cheesecloth with dry used coffee grounds. Hang in closets to absorb odors. (Old nylons?  Cheesecloth?? Who has any of those these days??? Clothes that smell like coffee – priceless ???)
9. After you give your dog a bath, rub coffee grounds through the coat of your pet. Coffee grounds are said to repel fleas. (This sounds like an interesting, messy and futile challenge! Glad I don’t have a dog to test this one on!)
10. Keep bait worms alive by mixing coffee grounds into the soil before you add worms. (Right. That one goes to the top of my list. NOT.)

Looking for more uses for your old coffee grounds? GreenDaily.com would be happy to provide you with 10 more equally interesting ideas for using those not to be discarded coffee grounds.

In the meantime, does this mean we have to start storing up old coffee grounds like used soda cans?  Nah.  Last time I was in my local Starbucks I noticed that they actually keep a bin of old coffee grounds for customers to take home.  (Truly.  They do!)

You can always find a distraction if you’re looking for one.

— Tom Kite

I think I’ve just come full circle; I’m back to easy entertainment and distraction.  But at the very least, I’m being mindless all by myself, scribbling along on my keyboard, no TV necessary.  All in all, I enjoyed (hmmm, there’s that word “joy” again) the satisfaction of getting some yard work done instead of my usual “easy evening distractions”… And writing about it in this frivolous post was FUN!

I challenge you: This evening, take time out and experience your easy entertainment a little more creatively than usual.  (Go ahead, use those coffee grounds, I dare you!)