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Transcript

When Your Mind Needs a Break · The Seed Project

• 0:06
  Hey, friend.
• 0:07
  Welcome to Sunday Seed.
• 0:08
  I'm Charlotte Edwards, and I believe small seeds create big impact.
• 0:13
  Each week, we'll plant one.
• 0:15
  Let's dig in.
• 0:20
  I love fall, I love pumpkins, and I also love flowers.
• 0:24
  And this past weekend, I decided to put a few of my favorite things together.
• 0:29
  For years, I used to host pumpkin carving parties.
• 0:32
  We'd get all the kids together, carve pumpkins, and make a whole afternoon out of it.
• 0:38
  But now the kids are all away at college, and I guess I haven't outgrown my wanting to play with pumpkins.
• 0:45
  I picked up a couple of white pumpkins at the grocery store, pulled out some dried flowers I already had, and got out the Mod Podge.
• 0:53
  I didn't have a design picked out.
• 0:55
  I didn't look up a tutorial.
• 0:57
  I didn't even know where I was gonna put the pumpkins when I finish.
• 1:02
  I just thought it would be fun to make something pretty.
• 1:06
  Life's been especially busy lately with a lot going on and plenty occupying my mind.
• 1:11
  I had things I could have been doing, things I probably should be doing, but none of them sounded near as appealing as decorating a pumpkin I sat down at my kitchen table and started playing around with the flowers.
• 1:25
  I tried a couple different combinations, moved things around, added a few leaves, and figured out what I liked as I went.
• 1:33
  I wasn't trying to make it look like something I'd seen online.
• 1:37
  If I liked the way a flower looked, I used it, and if I didn't, I'd move on and find something different.
• 1:43
  And for a while, that was all that I was thinking about.
• 1:46
  Not the things I needed to get done, the conversations I needed to have, or the problems I was trying to figure out.
• 1:53
  Just which flowers I wanted on my pumpkin, and it was wonderful I think we have a pretty narrow idea of what taking a break is supposed to look like.
• 2:03
  Usually, it involves sitting down, putting up our feet, and doing absolutely nothing.
• 2:08
  And don't get me wrong, I can definitely appreciate a good afternoon on the couch as much as anybody, especially if college football's on.
• 2:17
  But if you haven't noticed how you can sit down and rest and your brain just keeps going, you're physically doing nothing, but mentally you're still working through everything that was on your mind before you sat down.
• 2:29
  That's one thing I love about doing something creative.
• 2:32
  My hands are busy, but my mind gets a break from everything else.
• 2:36
  I'm not trying to solve anything or figure out what needs to happen next.
• 2:40
  I'm just enjoying what I'm doing.
• 2:44
  There's something wonderful about creating without having to worry about the outcome.
• 2:48
  I could change my mind, try something different, and see where it went.
• 2:53
  There wasn't anybody to please, and there certainly wasn't any grade at the end.
• 2:57
  I was just having fun.
• 3:00
  I think we forget that enjoyment is a perfectly good reason to do something.
• 3:04
  We don't always need a purpose or a particular outcome.
• 3:08
  There's room in life for doing things simply because we like them.
• 3:12
  And I wonder how many things we used to love doing that we've slowly stopped making room for, not because we stopped enjoying them, but because somewhere along the way, other things took a priority.
• 3:24
  So the next time your mind feels like it has about 47 tabs open, think about what you enjoy doing that lets you forget about everything else, even just for a little while.
• 3:36
  It doesn't have to be sitting still to be restful That's your seed.
• 3:42
  Now go plant something good