Second Cup: Something active, something creative

children need to do something physical and something musical. You can do more, and they often do, but as they create their activity portfolio, they need to do some sport or physical activity at all times, and they need to play a musical instrument or sing in some sort of ensemble. I figure that this rule will help them be well rounded and build their skills and stay healthy. This rule also just helps me as a management matter. With five kids, that can be easy to lose sight of whether any

individual child is appropriately active and social. But as long as every kid is doing something physical and something musical, then we should be good. Anyway, as I was describing this household rule to someone, I had an epiphany. This is a pretty good rule for adults too. We should all do something physical just for general health and energy reasons.

I understand not everyone is into music. But if we broaden that part of the rule to doing something artistic or otherwise creative, that seems like a reasonable goal too. We can all look at our lives in the portfolio of our leisure hours to make sure we are doing something active and something creative. The active could be anything walking or running with a friend, swimming laps, taking an exercise class, lifting weights under the guidance of a trainer,

playing on a softball team. The creative part might require a little more thought, as fewer adults build such things into their lives on a regular basis. But if you set this rule for yourself, it might nudge you to think through a creative hobby. You could journal, You could write stories, you could write poems. You could do needlework or woodworking. You could design a garden. You could paint

or sketch. If you don't know how to do something creative but have always been interested, you are in luck, as there are hosts of YouTube video demonstrating every skill and technique you can think of, plus ones you probably haven't thought of. Either. You could find a local studio or school and start taking classes. If you used to play an instrument, you might be able to rent that instrument, just like kids in school bands do, and start playing

it again. Electronic keyboards are reasonably affordable if you played the piano at one time but don't have room for a grand in your apartment. Most reasonably sized cities have community choruses, or if you attend a house of worship, you might look into the offerings there. In any case, setting the goal of something active and something creative will

help you think about nurturing these parts of you. Adults tend to spend most of our time working or caring for family members, with some leisure like watching TV thrown into the mix. Setting a goal of doing something active and something creative encourages healthy choices we all need to move, and it will also make life more interesting. If a colleague asks on Monday morning what you did over the weekend,

you might think that the answer is often nothing. But if you went on a group bike ride on Saturday morning and played in your string quartet on Sunday, well that is a different matter entirely. You just have a lot more to think about and talk about. If you have something active and something creative in your life at all times. I'd love to hear about it. You can tell me about it at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most.

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