Making It

The self is...a creation, the principal work of your life, the crafting of which makes everyone an artist. This unfinished work of becoming ends only when you do, if then, and the consequences live on.
~Rebecca Solnit

Today for Wellness Wednesday, I'm thinking about how good it feels to make things. I'm not talking about particular things. It could be anything: constructing a table, baking a cake, knitting a scarf, writing a poem, putting together a floral arrangement, composing a song, making your own video. Does fixing something that's broken count as making something? I would say yes -- you're making something usable again.

I LIKE TO MAKE THINGS from Nathan Boey on Vimeo.

We don't need to make things that win Emmys, although it's certainly cool if we do. We can make things just for fun, just because it feels good, just because we like to make things. I have a friend who makes really cool soap. I am in the middle of making vanilla extract and just finished making Queen of Hungary water. The Queen of Hungary water feels great but doesn't smell quite the way I'd like it to. I'm working on it. Everything you make doesn't have to turn out exactly right, you know? Just do what you do, and keep going.

In case you're interested in swapping with other people who make things: Swapbot.

You can pretty much find all kinds of ideas on YouTube. This one made me laugh at the beginning (can't reach the soda!). It's a clever little project:



I found this interesting, sort of like when you watch someone cooking a meal you know you'll never actually fix:



Going to make anything today?