Challenge: January 2012 - 'New'

I recently signed up to the "Creative Every Day Challenge" on the following website:

http://creativeeveryday.com 

The theme for January is "New".
I was a little late starting this challenge, but every month from now on I intend to follow the stimulus and blog about it.

'New':
At first I thought 'I could learn a new skill - maybe to crochet, or sign up for a photography course....' etc. In essence, I was thinking of adding to the skills I already have (or think I have!).

But then somebody showed me the following article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?_r=4&pagewanted=all

It really struck a chord with me.

In 2010 I left the UK to go travelling for a while - I ended up being away for eight months in total. Only a handful of people in the UK had my international/Aussie phone number and I deliberately did not go online every single day - once a week was probably my average. I loved being away from it all - I could not understand how so many people had a laptop in their rucksack and had the need to Skype home every day. What was the point in being on the other side of the world?!
I chose that time to focus on other things - I read an average of 1.3 books a week in those eight months and listened to more music than I can remember! I also kept journals/scrapbooks detailing the sights I had seen, the people I had met and the highs and lows of being on my own, exploring other countries and cultures.

I often miss the simplicity that my travelling alter-ego enjoyed.

The challenge I have chosen for January is in fact not all that new, but more of a step towards how it used to be... simpler.

Every day for at least one hour I will switch off from everything - no phone, no TV, no iTunes, no e-mail, no facebook, no internet... Just me, the quiet, my thoughts and maybe a pen and paper. And who knows, maybe (or should I say, hopefully,) something creative will emerge... Maybe I'll finally finish the synopsis for a novel that has been whirring in my mind over the last year or so, or even design the costumes for the show I want to produce...

One hour.
Every day.

Let the challenge begin...