Issue #198: puzzles, paint, and time to play 🎨

Morning ,

A couple months ago, my partner and I exchanged gifts and, without planning, got each other the same thing: new versions of the games we loved most growing up.

I gifted him a chess set (before The Queen’s Gambit even aired… can you believe?) and he gifted me a retro edition of Scrabble. We laughed about it — it was like the year we gave each other coffee-themed gifts, but instead of hypercaffeinating each other, we did the exact opposite: we gave each other permission to slow down and play.

It shouldn’t have really been a surprise. In a year of such heaviness and more adult decision-making than any of us ever bargained for, comfort and downtime (if we’re lucky enough to have them) have skewed in the other direction, back to the fun-seeking activities we enjoyed most as kids.

In March, we baked.
In April, we played video games. 
And in May (and every month since), we puzzled.  

For the first time in our adult lives, play has resurfaced as a driving force in our home time. (In fact, it's what our sibling brand, Whiled, is all about.) We’re turning dinner tables into puzzle canvases, cross-stitching our feelings, scratching the back of the bookshelf for Bananagrams, and meeting friends on Animal Crossing islands until we can hang IRL again. 

This issue of GNI is dedicated strictly to play: the ways we’re slowing down, the games we’ve mastered, and the new activities we’ve turned into hobbies over the past 270 days or so. 

1️⃣  My first recommendation is to take this issue, and write all the ideas that speak to you on a piece of paper — then cut that sheet into strips and put each idea, folded, in a jar to get you through winter. Don't forget to add a few of your own personal favorite just-for-fun activities. Every time you’re bored or restless, reach in and give yourself permission to play, make, create, and spend time with your inner child.

2️⃣ As you contemplate how you might use your downtime in the coming days, my second recommendation is to read our recent interview with Chanel Miller. In March of this year, Chanel’s book, Know My Name, was our GNI book club pick as the world came screeching to a halt. Months since we finished the book, Chanel’s voice and creativity continue to emerge as an incredible comfort through These Times — from the drawings she shares on Instagram to Childhood, a podcast she made with her sister, Tiffany. 

One thing Chanel said about exploring the heaviness of 2020 through drawing stuck out to me: "To me, creating is a conscious act of listening to myself... Everything I make these days is an act of honoring what I feel in ways that I didn’t before." Imagine how much we might learn if we always took the time to slow down, disconnect, and listen to ourselves. 

3️⃣ My third piece of advice is to queue up this actual playlist we made you and put some time on your calendar to just create or play this weekend. We made this as a soundtrack for your activities — from play dough squishing, to clay-earring making, to a heated game of Catan online with friends. 

Without further ado, in addition to the playlist of songs, we made a GNI 2020 nonmusical play list — all the ways we’ve slowed down and played this year, outlined below. I hope it brings you comfort, nostalgia, and maybe an escape route the next time someone suggests you catch up over Zoom — why not play a game together instead? 

Until next week, 
Tyler Calder
Director of Content at GNI