It is Sunday, July 17th and I’m attempting to enjoy some downtime. I committed to doing nothing today.
Actually, that’s not possible for me. Since getting up at 7:45 a.m., I have watered the flowers, folded and put away laundry, made pickled peppers, reheated breakfast and lunch, turned on the dishwasher, corresponded with friends on Facebook, ordered a decorative item for my living room, walked the dog, picked blackberries in the field and have taken a shower. For the past two hours, I have been reading magazines and enjoying sitting in a lounge chair.
This is the closest I can really get to doing nothing.
While we were on our dog walk, my husband started making suggestions about what we could do today. I commented that because of the Honda Indy, any drive east would be futile, and any drive west would be equally busy for all the people avoiding going east. I suggested that we stay in, enjoy our yard and relax, maybe even take a nap.
And then I came across this recipe for a green smoothie with swiss chard and mangoes.
I said to myself, “maybe I should just saunter up to the store for the mangoes”.
It sounded like an amazing breakfast for tomorrow. But that would mean putting on shoes.
I wonder about the rest of you. How easy is it for you to enjoy downtime? I have a 50/50 chance each July of having an opportunity to enjoy downtime. With most clients on vacation or up at the cottage, the volume of work that might spill into a weekend decreases. I was able to leave work on Friday without anything to do.
But then there’s that problem of trying to figure out how to have “down” in your downtime.
If you have a recommendation for this, I’m all ears. Meanwhile, I will finish this blog post and move on.
Sometimes I think it can be hard just a sit and relax, but our bodies do a remarkable job every so often in telling us that’s exactly what we need to do. Maintaining a home, working and all that other stuff for many of us doesn’t leave a lot of time. Besides, don’t we all want to be out on a trail every weekend?
We have a bit of an advantage in that we’re empty nesters now, so don’t have the commitment to shuttle kids all over the place.
I have a non-traditional job in that my days off are consistently during the week. And we like to be out on a trail at least on one of those two days. But, every so often my body just says, “you need to park yourself in a lawn chair on the flagstone patio; however you can choose to do whatever you want as long as your butt is in that lawn chair.”
I guess sometimes doing nothing is the best exercise to do in order to refuel both mind and body to get back out there later and do something.
Look forward to reading more of your travels!