It’s Wednesday afternoon. I am eating lunch, alone, in the basement of a mall outside an MRT station far from home. 

What am I doing here in the middle of a work day in the middle of a work week?

I am out on a whim.

I can do that now. With my new three days a week work schedule, I can step out for errands or a massage or a little solo outing if I feel like. 

No emails to check. 

No meetings to attend. 

No reason to be alert for an unexpected call.

I like this life. It feels easy and light. It seems just right.

But at the end of the day when I look back and try to measure the hours by what I have accomplished, I feel a twinge of disappointment.

There is nothing to show for it. No projects completed. No reports written. Surely, there will be no payment for this day when the pay check arrives.

Was it a wasted day?

Measuring differently

Like the proverbial glass half full interpretation, what I did today can be interpreted in more than one way.

I decided to take a detour on my way back from my morning appointment. Instead of heading westward towards home, I boarded a train that took me further east, to Paya Lebar.

At the PLQ mall, I took pictures of the Blooms of Strength exhibit, a community-crafted crochet installation. It consisted of two large panels of hand-crocheted creations inspired by Singapore’s national flower, the Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid. It was made in collaboration with social enterprises that worked with home-bound women and gave them opportunities for both income generation and social engagement.

As a crochet enthusiast, I was impressed by the size and beauty of these installations that were situated right at a mall entrance that leads in straight from the MRT station. Most people seemed preoccupied and brushed past the exhibit without a second glance but I stopped to read the caption and take pictures, mentally thanking all those involved in creating this installation.

A few years ago when I had not yet discovered the joys of crochet, I too might have walked by this installation but now I know better. I see the effort and imagination, the dedication and perseverance required to produce a thing of beauty. I am grateful to the friend who introduced me to crochet, the supportive community that I am now a part of where news of such initiatives as shared and most importantly, I am thankful that I have tweaked my life to include time to appreciate something like this.

Like flowers that bloom for a short while and wither, whether or not you stop to appreciate them, I know I must have missed thousands of opportunities to incorporate moments of beauty and awe while I was busy rushing around or staring at my phone over the years. I can’t reset the time machine and go back but I can pause now and include some things on a whim, because I can.

A small specialised store

After a solo lunch break (vegetarian thunder tea rice) and a reward of a Subway chocolate chip cookie, I boarded the train to the next stop, MacPherson, to visit a quaint yarn store, Woolly Stitch.

Located in an area with just industrial type buildings, this little shop on the fourth floor was a well-organised tiny space with yarn, pattern books and accessories. I met Angela who knew every single thing – not just the merchandise which included silk, merino wool and alpaca yarn along with cotton, acrylic and other varieties but was able to advise me on needle sizes and approximate quantities of yarn I would need for various projects. The shop displayed many of the items she had knitted or crochet including an exquisite blanket made of pretty granny squares, a cute dumpling bag and the beautiful yellow top that she was wearing.

Angela patiently answered all my questions and helped me find yarn that would match well with my half-completed beanie hat that had been languishing for a few days. I had started that project in my crochet class with Priya from Weaving Happiness but had to stop when I ran out of the red alpaca wool that I had bought on my trip to Peru back in May.

Of course, you can’t just buy a skein of the yarn you need when you enter such stores. I bought a marked down mystery bag which contained an interesting combination of things which I hope will be put to good use in due course as I gain more mastery over this craft form that I must admit has been quite addictive. So I walked away with a large bag containing an assortment of yarns along with the one I really needed for my incomplete project.

The final tally

As I get ready for bed, I go over the activities of the day and feel greatly satisfied. I spent the day doing a few things I had planned and others that were unplanned. I still managed to get in 15 minutes of a weights workout before I left home and an hour-long walk with a friend before dinner. And now, after dinner, I am writing this as part of a virtual co-create circle with a handful of other women from a continent where it is early morning. Plus, I managed to make a sunflower bookmark, finished reading an intriguing book The Bookshop Woman, and had a nice long chat with my brother.

A wasted day?

No way!

I hope I can go on to have many more productive days like this one as I get more comfortable with my ‘non-working’ weekdays.