Around this time last year I came across this great thread on Ask MetaFilter: Hobbies for the Lazy. The person asked about low-key hobbies, since they were feeling burned out and their current hobbies - gardening, baking, and running - were starting to feel like work.
I loved the suggestions in the thread, and it feels good to revisit it now (it's been in my bookmarks forever, and in my scratch pad here on the blog).
They mention reading as a hobby that doesn't feel like work, along with drawing and coloring.
I've recently started trying to do more reading for pleasure. I used to read so much, when I was a kid; I was one of those kids who went to the library every week and came home with stacks of books (public library and school library both). (We had a really good library at my grade school; I can still picture it in my mind, walking in, heading for Zilpha Keatley Snyder in the fiction section over here, finding Greek mythology and dinosaurs over there in non-fiction.) Like a lot of people, I've been feeling pretty burned out myself, and reading enjoyable, happy-ending books has been a balm. I got The Windvale Sprites for my birthday, and loved that; I followed it up with a reread of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which was also delightful.
Reading stories like that gives me a kind of quiet and comforting pleasure that few other things do.
The Hobbies for the Lazy thread has a lot of other excellent suggestions, things I would love to do more of: jigsaw puzzles, drawing, collage (do I even have any good glue anywhere?). Crochet would be good, although in the past I've found it aggravates my wrists and hands, which have already spent all day on the keyboard.
I miss jigsaw puzzles; I don't have a good place to put one, but it seems like it'd be fun to do some easy ones while I'm watching an episode of some sitcom or other after dinner.
And crosswords are just about perfect for me, especially if I'm in a bad mood - they take just enough concentration to take my mind of whatever's bothering me, and give me a little boost when I finish filling in the grid. I bought some great Merl Reagle crossword collections a while back, and there are a few free puzzles at the New York Times every week as well.
I keep imagining having hours and hours of free time, how nice it would be to just sit and read a book all day, or to while away several evenings on a jigsaw puzzle.
For now, I'll keep looking forward to whatever short spells I can find to sit in a quiet spot with a warm, cozy book, and lose myself in a beautiful story.
Reading by Lamplight, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, courtesy of the Rijksmuseum