3-Minute Creation

Mom, make me a birthday card.

That's what my child said to me on their actual birthday, at 8:00 PM, after we had eaten ice cream crepes at Baskin-Robbins, drank a waterfall of drinks at the drink bar at Saizeriya, and returned home exhausted.

I am a parent, after all. It's not like I hadn't prepared for my child's birthday celebration. I spent until 4:00 AM decorating across the room (though I did fall asleep from 12:00 to 2:00). I gathered all the stuffed animals in the house, gave them speech bubbles, and had them say, "Happy 6th Birthday!" To top it off, I launched a balloon attack. I blew up a massive amount of colorful balloons to fill the room. I numbered only ten of them with a permanent marker. If they collected them from "Happy①" to "Happy⑩" (Happy Birthday), they would get a reward: their favorite ice cream from the freezer. Heh heh. Surely, they would be dancing with joy when they woke up in the morning. Perhaps my child didn't realize how hard their mother worked. My HP is already at zero.

I had a present, but I hadn't prepared a card. "I see. That's sudden. If it's too much, next week is fine," my child said, being so understanding. I would have found it easier to refuse if they had thrown a tantrum and said they hated it. Now that they had accepted it so easily, I started to feel a bit sorry for them. That said, they probably wouldn't be satisfied if I just scribbled a message on adult stationery.As I looked around the room wondering what to do, I saw some leftover cardboard and cellophane.That's it. It's the leftover material from making 3D glasses for the Taro-man movie last week. Let's try this.

The time limit is 3 minutes.

My child is energetic, but they were definitely tired from playing outside during the day and going out with me in the evening. After returning home, they were supposed to take a bath, have a modest birthday party (which just meant singing a birthday song), and go straight to bed. The only time left was while my child was taking a shower. As someone who impulsively likes to take notes, I keep pens, sticky notes, and scissors in every room. I gathered those along with a glue stick and started working on a round table about 50 centimeters in diameter.

▲ In our house, we use this instead of the classic birthday song.

Take your time for hours? No, I get more fired up with "Make the best thing in 3 minutes."Move your hands rather than thinking with your head. New inspiration is born from unexpected mistakes.I used cellophane this time, but when I applied glue as if I were handling origami, the cellophane kept shrinking. Cellophane is apparently made from wood pulp, so it's sensitive to moisture and curls up immediately. Even when I tried to stick it on neatly, my hand would slip. The parts that accidentally overlapped and got glued together actually turned out quite nice.

Even without time, you can make good things.

To make something high-quality, people tend to think you need to ponder it repeatedly, leave it for a while to look at it from a third-party perspective, and then fix it again. You tend to think that if you spend time like that, it will become something good. But the instantaneous power of a short time—that shouldn't be underestimated either.If thinking with your head doesn't work, try asking your body.Isn't it okay to have moments like that?

Lifting your spirits from your body

Changing the subject, I started taking voice training lessons in earnest this month. The homework for the first session was to be conscious of "a-i-u-e-o" in daily life. They say that if you open your mouth wide even in casual conversation, it becomes normal, and that will also help with singing. It's been three days since I started being conscious of it, butfor some reason, my mental state has improved.I think it's because I'm forcing the corners of my mouth up. I often hear, "If you keep smiling, your brain will be fooled and you'll actually feel happy." I used to think like an actor from the Showa era, wondering how I could smile when I wasn't happy, but when I think about opening my mouth wide instead of trying to smile, the corners of my mouth go up too.The flesh of my cheeks stays lifted. Then, the macho in my heart lifts my mental state up as well.I was surprised that voice training had a mental improvement effect.

The conversation went from birthday cards to voice training, but the realization is the same. Don't think with your head; follow your body. Intentionally create opportunities for that. In their daily play, children run with all their might, scream until their throats feel like they'll tear, andrelease their body's limiters. Adults control themselves every day.Pilder On. It's okay to remove the limiters. You can't see new scenery unless you step out of bounds a little. I'm thinking of putting my brain into sleep mode in September and letting my body take me where it wants to go.

Please check out my previous article too.

Feel free to follow me.