Moodling explained

This blog is the fault of Brenda Ueland and my longest-standing friend, Cathy. Actually, maybe it's all the fault of Cathy, who gave me one of Brenda Ueland's books several years ago. Its title is If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit (1987, Graywolf Press, ISBN 1-55597-260-8). Brenda Ueland is the woman who coined the word "moodle." Moodling, she said, is "long, inefficent, happy idling, dawdling and puttering (p. 32)."

My life is full of inefficiencies, happiness, idling, dawdling, and puttering (when my daughter isn't standing at my shoulder saying, "Mom, it's still raining, and this DVD doesn't work. Would you mind driving us back to the video store so we can get one that does?") We do our best to keep our lives simple enough that we have time to dawdle and putter and be happy and laid-back (and able to run off at a moment's notice for a DVD that actually works).

It strikes me, as I begin this blog of moodlings about living simply, writing creatively, and loving gratefully all the good in my life, that Brenda Ueland's book is one I will probably return to again and again. Brenda had a lot of good things to say about simplicity, creativity, and enjoying this life with which we've been blessed.

So, thanks, Brenda, for the book, and for coining the word that describes something a lot of us need more of in this crazy, busy, consumer-treadmill-world. And thanks, Cathy, for encouraging my moodlings and suggesting this blog even though it's probably last thing the internet needs!