whim·sy
/ˈwɪmzi/
noun
1. playfully quaint or fanciful behaviour or humour
2. a thing that is fanciful or odd.
I often talk about how the terrible trio have inspired me to live this creative life, how I want to show them they can be, do and have anything they wish, if they work for it.
But LilliBean is also about inviting whimsy into life, inviting whimsy into MY life. It wasn’t until recently when some one asked me what that actually meant that I realised that I have never shared what that actually means and why it is so important to me.So today I thought I would do that and why this mission has become even more important in the world we are living in today.
I remember as a girl I would create these fantastical and whimsical worlds that I would then ‘play’ in and often drag my siblings and friends into. Sometimes these worlds were based on a book I was reading or my favourite cartoon. Sometimes I didn’t want to come out of those whimsical worlds of space travel, Native American warriors, tea parties, caped crusaders, or Amazonians.
As an adult my whimsical worlds became somewhat lost. I became focused on a practical life. On the day to day: Work, rent, bills were the focus. There was no space in my world for whimsy.
There was no space in that world for anything but seemingly endless monotony and whimsy was forgotten.
It wasn’t until Mac and I decided to leave Australia for a year long gap year, travelling and exploring the world that whimsy had space to be invited into my life again.
For eight years whimsy surrounded me on a daily basis. From exploring bone churches and the cat cemeteries in Rome, catacombs and tree houses in Turkey, vampiric legends in Romania, to medieval castles in the Czech republic and Pictish ruins in our Scottish home, I was surrounded by whimsy and inspiration. I even found the bitterly cold and grey landscape of Warsaw completely captivating.
Mostly our next stop was decided on a whim with a flip of a coin or a game of scissor paper rock to decide what we did that day. My imagination sparked to life again, and I filled journals with notes, ideas, drawings and stories.
Coming back to Australia, part of me felt that those days of whim were past – kids, mortgages, bills, life took over. But slowly (after fighting and being angry with the routine and mundane) I realised I could create spaces in my home that were inspired by the whimsical and fun, I could go on small adventures closer to home to inspire whimsical ideas.
I could…..
This year has been a shit show. Completely and utterly shit. One evening I wrote down everything that had happened in or effected our life. Drought, seriously ill family members, bush fires, floods, corona, lock down, home schooling, rioting and demonstrations. The news is full of death and negativity and all kinds of fucked up shit.
So once I wrote down this horrifying list, I started a new one. I wrote a list of ways I have or how I could invite whimsy into life. Little things I could do to invite inspiration and magic and whimsy into my everyday. A list that could in some small ways counteract the other crap.
I came up with over 50 things I have done or could do to invite in whimsy. And right then and there I decided I needed to stepup my game. I decided I was going to invite more whimsy into our life.
So what is inviting whimsy into life? It’s having a five minute dance party with the kids or Mac, it’s having moonlit picnics in the backyard, its decorating my studio with whimsical things, it’s growing bright colourful flowers, or wearing fun socks or collecting tea pots, or just standing on the grass in bare feet.
Whimsy is everywhere, and I am going to consciously invite it in and I challenge you to invite a little bit of whimsy into your life too!
P.S. If you are currently inviting whimsy in hit reply and let me know what you do! I would love to hear from you.
P.S.S Stay tuned because I have been inspired to write a monthly blog post about whimsy and how we invite it in!
