When I choose to depart from the familiar, I do so as a challenge to myself. Thinking of it as a workout on a routine machine, I undertake something new to break down and ultimately strengthen my routine-creating muscles. With routines, as with any relationship, the goal is not to settle. I seek and fully embrace the seeking until I unquestionably find. And when I’ve found (and I know it!), that’s when the defining and refining begin, and the real fun is in the sculpting once a design has begun to take shape!
Plop me down somewhere new and give me two full days, three tops, and I guarantee the fourth will resemble the second or third in some meaningful way. It’s not a matter of running out of ideas; it’s a matter of fumbling a few times before finding the best grip on a time or a place, determining how to carry the most of these moments with me!
Perhaps this begs the question, why routine hop at all? Because as much as I love routines, I especially love a new routine in the immediate wake of its discovery. Mind you, the discovery itself, unmixed novelty in its pure state, is like a workday to get through. What I love is this workday’s productive conclusion: a fresh routine, just prepared, and the glorious first couple of days of feasting on it! How its flavors come through when spiced with proximity to the strange and new (but not overwhelmingly so)!
Just as it’s hard to convince a hungry man to think about anything other than food, I feel similarly when plunged into completely novel surroundings - all I can think about is crafting a routine as quickly and meaningfully as possible.
For me, novelty-seeking is a means to write better prologues. Novelty is my medium, and I make vintage, handmade routines. So long as it’s self-crafted, I do not feel bad doing the same thing day to day. Oh, familiarity, all I ask is my signature on your origin! Yes, novelty is my clay, and I am anxious to form it into something more distinct as soon as it hits my hands.
What is all this, you may ask? Just the typical musings of a routine craftsman.