Free Days
I have been counting my “free days” since I learned about them. Free days are a beautiful notion. I read about them in Free Days with George by Colin Campbell. A free day happens when you spend it doing exactly what you want to do and doing it with who you want to be with. For example, on my first recognized free day I slept until I woke up because I had no alarm. Made myself coffee and had my sadhana time, even wrote a little on a manuscript. Then just after the sun came up, I went for a run on a glorious mountain trail. Although, I was sore from a previous steep hike and took a nasty fall on the way back down, my heart and lungs were open, and I remained grateful to be out on the trail and moving my body. After a hot shower and dressing my scrapes, my granddaughter and I drove to a town about 35 minutes away to attend a Wooble event.
Woobles are a branded form of crocheting small creatures or anthropomorphized objects. The broader term is amigurumi. Each kit includes all the supplies needed and a QR code that links to a series of videos that teach you to crochet the creature. While it is very proprietary, there is no denying that the videos have been a huge support to me when teaching my granddaughter to crochet. A skill my grandmother passed on to me. Anyway, this summer the Wooble Wagon has travelled the U.S. stopping to pop-up it’s 4 tents, one for check-in where each attendee gets a free limited-edition kit (see photo of Willy the Wooble Wagon); a tent to learn to crochet and contribute to a very long crochet chain; a tent for games and of course, a merch tent. I had attended the Wooble Wagon’s first stop in the tour in a small town, so I knew what to expect. Well, not really. We were in a very large metropolitan area and although we got there 15 minutes early, there was already a very long line. It took about 90 minutes for us to get to check-in and another hour to get to the merchandise tent. My granddaughter was patient, kind, and had a good attitude despite all the waiting. Being with her brings me such joy.
After we left, she chose a restaurant close by, and we had mocktails, bacon candy and tomato soup and began crocheting our Woobles as we waited for our food. On our drive back to her house, we stopped at a craft fair where all the merchants were donating their profits to flood damage relief for the community. Once home we set ourselves up on the back deck with Olivio Rogrigo playing and our crochet kits and talked and crocheted away. We took the dog for a walk as a family, played Lorcana, a trading card game, and had a wonderful dinner on the deck. Afterwards everyone spent time stretching their sore bodies and then an early bedtime. I did not do one thing I didn’t want to do all day long. And the reward for having a free day is that you do not get any older that day!
Here’s to more free days in life!