31 Days of Experiencing New Things – Day 5 & 6
The problem with taking on any project like this, where you commit to doing something new every day for a certain number of days, is coming up with compelling, new experiences that conveniently fit into your day. Sure, if you have unlimited free time you could visit new towns, take a train ride, hike a new mountain, but when you’re a working girl like me, you need something fun and time effective.
But here’s the cool thing. I’ve discovered that if you’re open, and if you ask, new experiences will come to you! You don’t have to “make” something happen!
For these past two days, I haven’t had to come up with new experiences because new experiences have been coming to me. Yesterday, I unexpectedly received the most devastatingly beautiful gift from a friend in California. This gift, which came in the mail, made me weep with appreciation and amazement. Never, in my life, have I received such a touching, unimaginable gift from a friend. Never. And the experience of receiving it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I would love to tell you more, but one of the conditions of receiving this gift was not to tell a soul. And so, that is all.
Then, today, I was once again stuck without an idea of something new to do or experience. And again, one came to me. The hair salon I go to, Avante, called to tell me I’d won the drawing for a $100 gift certificate for any of their salon services! Mani-Pedi, here I come! How cool it that? I rarely win anything (I remember two other occassions in my very long life where I won something like this), so it was a great experience.
I told my bon vivant Mark, “Let’s go buy a lottery ticket, because I am riding the mojo, baby!” My new name is Lucky Trouble Tierney!
1Karen Pierce Gonzalez
wrote on 7 July 2010 at 15:24
Nancy, you do find ways to keep busy, don’t you?
Hope all is well…
Karen
2nancytierney
wrote on 7 July 2010 at 15:36
Yes, keeping busy is never a problem! I AM well, and I hope you are, too!
3Ann e.King
wrote on 8 July 2010 at 7:39
Well, you no sooner suggested it when the experience came to me. Amazing. But, that was Day Six. I’ll start with Day Five.
It’s not a brand new experience but something that I hadn’t done in so many years. With a firm intention to get back to singing, I sat down at the computer, pulled up iTunes and made a playlist of my favorite songs to sing. Then, I brought up my mike and stand, set them up in my office and gave a concert to the park. Was I rusty? You bet. But, that doesn’t matter. The first brick has been laid.
The evening of Day Six brought the new experience to me. With record rainfall in one day, I watched as a stream formed in my back yard and rushed down the hill toward the neighbors. And it just kept growing. My patio was a pool and low-lying areas at the bottom of the yard were filling up like little ponds. I could see that my potted flowers were getting drenched so I donned the raingear and headed out to rescue them. My daughter was less inclined to stay dry and followed me outside in shorts and t-shirt. She splashed in puddles like she was seven. We stayed out in the downpour for quite a while just watching with amazement the amount of water that was pouring from the sky. When we got back in and the rain had stopped, my mother called with a little bit of panic in her voice, saying she needed help moving things because water was coming into her basement. The drive to her house was so cool because we had to crawl through some of the intersections due to the standing water. There were people, especially kids, out everywhere playing in the flooded streets. We had to park four houses away from my mother’s house because the water was above the curb and into her yard. It only took us about 15 minutes to take care of things but by the time we left, the water had begun to recede. If not for the call for help, we would never had experienced what we did, which we agreed was quite delightful.
In the 17 years that I’ve lived in this house, I’ve never seen rain or water like that in my yard. And, I’m so grateful that I live on a ridge because the security of watching water move away from the house beats the anxiety of having it fill the basement.
This experiment is too much fun. My antennae are up and arms wide open anxiously anticipating the next adventures. So glad you posted that link.
4gberke
wrote on 10 July 2010 at 5:21
Like a summer tonic, reading about new things to do. Good idea. Reminds me of one I startred and didn’t get past day 3
thanks
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