Thoughts and views about writing, researching and creating. All the doubts and wonders I come across, all the surprises and discovery of new roads I am lucky to experience when working with my non-fiction texts. A big and warm welcome to you, I’m very happy to see you here. - Majken xx
I once bought a book named The No Diet Diet. It’s a book that tells you how to lose weight, however, not in a ‘counting the calories’ kind of way. Actually, it doesn’t mention food very much, as I remember. Instead, it focuses on habits. The authors - Ben Fletcher, Danny Penman and Karen J. Pine - claim that if you are good at changing your daily routines, you will - in the long run - also become good at changing your eating patterns. But you need to practice. You need to build “behavioural flexibility”, as they call it.
Now I didn’t buy the book because I needed to lose weight myself (at the time). But as I’m practically always looking for new inspirations on how to approach life, especially when they come in small, bite-size editions, the book intrigued me.
Moving my way through the streets, I felt a little tickle in my stomach, which of course, proved that I was exactly where I was supposed to be: somewhere outside of my comfort zone.
The No Diet Diet is very much a hands-on project. Every day for a number of weeks, you carry out a small task that brings you somewhere outside your daily humdrum. Bigger or smaller activities that are fun for you to carry out. If you have no idea what those new little side roads in your life can look like, the authors generously hand out several suggestions. One little ‘job’ I chose was to go to the cinema alone since I, at the time, only had been to see a movie in the company of friends.
And so, one slow midday, I cycled to the centre of the city, heading for this cosy little movie theatre. Moving my way through the streets, I felt a little tickle in my stomach, which of course, proved that I was exactly where I was supposed to be: somewhere outside of my comfort zone. Yes, this was indeed a small everyday adventure for me.
Inside the cinema, I approached the counter and asked for o-n-e ticket, please. The young man behind the desk started figuring out the practical details. And then, suddenly, he looked at me and said he was pretty sure he’d seen me before. Didn’t we take the same classes at the university some years ago? - and….yeah, he was right. I now recognised him too. We chatted for a while. He told me he had stopped his studies at the university, and after finishing an education as a teacher, he and a friend of his one day noticed that this cinema was for sale. Soon they agreed to buy it, and now here he was, the happy owner of this cosy mid-town movie theatre, selling me a ticket for my first time going alone to the pictures - what a coincidence.
Or perhaps faith was sending me a message that stepping outside of my comfort zone can lead to fun and unexpected situations. Whatever it was, it surely was a good experience, and it made me want to do more things that are different to what I usually do.
Our everyday routines can be so intense they block the way. You can almost hear them whisper from somewhere deep down: What is the point anyway? Why bother doing something different?
I’ve been to the cinema by myself several times since then - now this is no longer a strange thing for me. But other activities are. There will always be actions that are different from what we usually do - and among them, something that we are curious to try out.
But, hand on your heart, it is not always we get to actually do it, right? Our everyday routines can be so intense they block the way. You can almost hear them whisper from somewhere deep down: What is the point anyway? Why bother doing something different? It will only leave you exhausted and burned out, I’m sure. (And by the way, aren’t there enough exhausting activities in our lives already?) Nope, not for me. It is too big an effort. And certainly it …..… well, you can fill out the blank yourself.
However, although there are many reasons why you should stick to your usual to-do list, there are also many reasons why you should not. And it doesn't (necessarily) have to do with going on a no diet diet.
To me, going on everyday adventures is pure energy. It wakes up my senses and makes me more aware of life. When I step outside the box, I’m forced to see the world differently, which helps me keep my imagination and creativity alive - since I don’t know what will happen, I need to improvise, to be creative. Which are tools I use daily when I do my research and writing.
Perhaps you feel like adding a little everyday adventure to your daily or weekly activities from now on? Or go creative and turn some of your everyday routines into an adventurous escape, why not?
I suggest we turn it all upside down and ask: are there any good reasons not to throw ourselves into everyday adventures? Like catching a train to somewhere, you’ve never been, or going to your local supermarket and buying some of the sweets you ate when you were a child. Listen to some music that is “so not you”, or how about stepping into the shower while wearing all your clothes and turning on the water? Whatever out-of-your-comfort-zone experiences you can imagine doing.
The turn of the year is just around the corner, and for many of us, it is also a time to reflect a little deeper on how we spend our lives. Perhaps you feel like adding a little everyday adventure to your daily or weekly activities from now on? Or go creative and turn some of your everyday routines into an adventurous escape, why not?
If you have some ideas as to what an everyday adventure can look like, big or small, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a line - just follow this link. Thanks.
And then, before handing out a handful of ✨🎄Christmassy stuff, I'm sending you and your loved ones the best wishes of a Merry Christmas and a 🎉 Happy Wonderful New Year too. Thank you for reading my blog and for sending me greetings from wherever you are in the world. It is so lovely to hear from you.
This will be the last blog post for the season. 2023, March 2nd I will be back with more writings from my corner of the world and some handfuls of history as well.
Until then,
Majken xx
Weird Christmas
Over at the blog and podcast “Weird Christmas”, the host, Chris Kringle, wonders why the Victorians seemingly were “so hell-bent on filling Christmas cards with images of murdering frogs, dead birds, talking animals, animate puddings [..] and just general non-Christmassy insanity.” I’ll give you some examples:
A Merry Christmas to you too!
A Joyful Christmas? Well...
I hope so, thank you.
Weird, right? Kringle explains that there are several reasons why these postcards occurred. Around 1843 two things happened simultaneously in Britain; The UK postal system introduced the “penny post”, which allowed anyone to send a letter to anywhere else in the country for just a penny. Also, a certain Henry Cole, who “was too nice not to write back to all the people who were sending him letters”, came up with the idea of a postcard he could use “without having to write a long-ass letter to each and every person”, as Kringle puts it.
People loved the idea, and the reproducible postcard was soon born. Postcards started becoming a collector's item that you used not only at Christmas but all year to show each other. They were organised in boxes and put on the wall, and people went to their friends' houses to browse their most cool and fancy examples. What mattered was that the cards you had to show your friends were unique, and so the Christmas cards didn’t necessarily have to be “Christmassy”, they just had to be special. You may say that the cards above fit right into that description. Also, you notice that the Victorians apparently had a humour that was a bit rough. They were different from us in that sense, however, just like us, they enjoyed looking at visual images. The postcards met that need just like magazines, books, and not least, the internet does for us today. Here’s one more for you - ‘A Christmas Greeting with Love’.
❤️
Cosy Christmas Reading
December. Winter. Christmas. It’s time to snuggle up and read a cosy Christmas tale. Or listen to others' narration - why not. Here are some recommendations for you - both on Audible.com
There’s “Ghostly Tales”, four short ghost stories from the 18- and 1900s read - brilliantly! - by Simon Callow. In between the story reading, Callow performs as himself - a narrator who has turned up in the studio to do his job. He speaks with the producer (played by Sally Phillips) about the fun and annoyances of Christmas, about the stories he is about to read aloud and about his narration. It’s entertaining, and at the end, there’s a scary twist that includes himself...spoooooky…
The “Ghostly Tales” are: ’Between the Lights' by E.F. Benson, ‘A Strange Christmas Game' by J.H. Riddell, ‘Was It an Illusion' by Emelia B. Edwards and 'The Signalman' by Charles Dickens.
The all-time Christmas telling “A Christmas Carol” by the one and only Charles Dickens is also on my list. I’ve seen it performed in various ways through the years, all really good ones. This is no exception: Hugh Grant as Ebenezer Scrooge, the ghost of Christmas Present, Christmas Yet to Come and Christmas Past, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit and all the rest. Need I say that he does a first-class job? And the story itself, well, it never grows old (kind of like Hugh Grant himself ;-)).
WHAT IS THIS? This is a special ✨Christmas edition✨ of a blog post from me to you. A combination of 'from my corner of the world' - texts in which I share with you thoughts and views about writing, researching and creating. All the doubts and wonders I come across, all the surprises and discovery of new roads I am lucky to experience when working with my non-fiction texts - and 'a handful of history', which is me sharing real-life stories from around the world, narratives I’ve picked that are rooted in history one way or another. If you want to join my email list please go HERE.
MERRY CHRISTMAS - and a Happy New Year too! Thanks for reading. I’m happy and grateful to see you here!
Majken xx
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