Nobody could be surprised by the lack of posting in the midst of the Pandemic.
My word last year was Joy. That was a tough one. I don't suppose that these words are supposed to be easy chip-shots, otherwise, they would not be pursued over a year's time. I did manage some hold on joy at various times. Surprisingly, the Pandemic was not the main distraction from joy.
Joy turned out to be a whip rather than a goal. Feel joy! Think joy! Get joy out of something that completely rots! I spent time thinking about this in order to prepare for the word of 2022.
Using Joy as a goal felt like wrestling. My goals for 2021 were closer to the idea of Exploration. That meant exploration in knitting, weaving, spinning, exercise, yoga, organizing, decluttering, cooking. Was Joy to be measured during the process? As an endpoint? As a flash during the experience? As a retrospective assessment? The astute reader might say "all of those". However, that, as a goal, was too diffuse for the word or for the experience.
That was about the time that Mr. E mentioned an article that pushed the concept of Flow into the picture. While this link is not that article, it covers the concept perfectly. Dopaminergic reward rears its seductive head yet again. This is it. It is what I have been trying to conceptualize throughout the Joy year. And now, I can use it for my word of 2022. (Link #2, Link #3 with science and discussions)
My goal has been a flow state. It can happen with so many activities: knitting, spinning, cooking, exercise. Seeking flow does not destroy the experience. And when it is achieved, that is joy.
This started as, and, indeed, still is a knitting blog. January 1, long gone, was blogiversary #17.
The cartoon is my current state of stash contemplation, and the yarn is spindle spun Mad Colors 100% Polwarth, 4 oz. Nice stuff. Finishing the spin was a flow state. Plying it back on itself (yarn vomit! twisties! rampant scissors use!) was not. Lesson(s) learned.
(cartoon by Allie Brosh)
(yarn by Etherknitter and Bosworth Spindles)
