Andrew and I were in Montreal this past week, and did nothing relating to Mennonites or our own history. However, we did visit some museums and it gave me some thoughts regarding the Mennonite Heritage Village but more about that another time.
I was probably most relaxed about this trip because I was not trying to accomplish anything. In addition to that, right before we left, I treated myself to my first (but certainly not last) book by Ariel Gordon, titled Fungal. I’ve been to one of her book launches at McNally Robinson and have enjoyed when she has hosted the book launches of others and I find her really interesting. Meaning, smart, hilarious, strong, fun. I found myself staring at Fungal on the shelf at McNally Robinson right before our trip, and I impulse-bought it. I read it all during our trip, just devoured it.
Her pursuit of mushrooms on crown land without being certain of what she was doing or how to do it well, really spoke to me. She pursues mushrooms, I pursue burial places. I was inspired and encouraged to read of her misadventures and love of simply everything. “I am a professional noticer” I think is what she had written, which reminded me of Brent Manke‘s little book, Pay Attention. I like this idea very much.
After the pleasure of accompanying Ariel via the written word (and learning a thing or two about mushrooms and foraging!) I felt invigorated to get out there, and share my getting-out-there.
Now, my birthday is coming up and my place of employment gives us our birthday off. (Which is a really nice extra bonus.) So I had a decision to make. How was I going to spend my one day? A day when everyone else has to work? I decided to plan an adventure with E, whom I have not adventured with in quite a while.
I feel like having all that time to relax my brain and focus on something unrelated but somehow extremely adjacent, all for pure fun and with no expectation of anything, has allowed my brain to maybe begin to relearn focus and how to be organized.
I feel like a lot of my past adventures have not been very well planned and I often beat myself up about that. And Fungal taught me not to be so uptight about it — like, just the fact that I’m doing it, means I’m doing it right. Because I’m not sure there is a specific formula for this.
Although I have stumbled upon one essential ingredient — knowing what I want. Sounds easy, but when you really think about it, actually knowing yourself well enough to know what you want and then to plan to make it happen, takes some self-awareness and maybe also work — but fun work.
E and I do not live in the same town, and in the interest of saving driving time, I once again chose an area to explore that is in the middle. There are still some things I want to see in that sparse neck of the woods. (Er, fields, essentially.) So I have crafted a cunning plan for our day! That’ll be happening next week and I will tell you all about it.
Meanwhile, I keep thinking about getting Ariel Gordon’s other books, Treed and Siteseeing. After all, it is my birthday month.
Hey! If you’re still here, reading all the way to the end, then you might be a bit of a “professional noticer” too. You should come to an event I’m speaking at on tomorrow night (April 8th) — the MHV’s AGM, 7pm at the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach. I’m not doing a major presentation or anything. Just giving a report. At an annual general meeting. But I promise I will do a better job than I did last year! (IYKYK!) And also, perhaps a sign I am getting older — I’m feeling compelled to attend AGMs — because I like them. I have the MMHS AGM on my calendar too. (May 3 at the MHV!)