I would rather wonder than know. It makes it more and more difficult to be alive on earth in these times, when your inclination is to wonder rather than to know. … I think wondering is a way of inhabiting and lingering. There seems to be more dwelling. To dwell, inhabit, and linger. I’m interested in those things. And you can do that when you don’t know. … I would rather inhabit the question, or dwell. For me, that is the place I want to live in.*
(Mary Ruefle)

Here’s something you may like to try this weekend … or do a little each day through the week.

Take an A4 sheet of plain paper and divide it into square. I’ve darkened my incomplete doodle here so you can see the pencil and how you don’t have to do this with a ruler.

The temptation is to draw a picture on a big sheet of paper and that can be intimidating. The idea here is to get abstract and work small. So take a square at a time and fill it in with abstract shapes from the visual alphabet. Jump around a little, rather than starting in the top left corner, and when sales touch “stitch” them together with some more abstract shapes.

As I mentioned, you can this is one last a week, setting it out and taking a few minutes here and there to dawdle and chill, or as it says – I like the Mary Ruefle quote a lot – dwell, inhabit, linger.

*Mary Ruefle, quoted in Austin Kleon’s blog: To wonder rather than know.