Today, Sarah tells us about a really bad day that she had.
She tossed and turned all night because of a looming deadline.
When she woke up "the sight of my books and papers sprawled on the floor near my bed where I'd wearily flung them late the night before, gave outward expression to my inner chaos and overwhelmed me.
I burst into tears."
After she had a good cry, she went into the back yard with a blanket and some pillows and leaned up against a tree.
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"But when I sat down, all I could bring myself to do
was sit quietly and breathe slowly.
I didn't want to meditate, have an authentic conversation with anyone, think, create, be clever, or be a conduit.
So I just sat there, sipped tea, looked up at the blue sky through the leafy canopy overhead and observed a butterfly's graceful path through the garden. My surroundings were ordinary, but this morning, so beautiful -
so familiar, yet so different.
Within a few minutes my dark mood began to lift.
Soon the cats joined me, curious at this unusual detour in the day's rhythm.
A little while later, [my daughter] wandered out, still drowsy with sleep, carrying a blanket and a pillow to nest and read with us.
She asked what I was doing.
I told her, for want of a better explanation, that I was conducting research:
letting Mother Nature nurture...
In between laughter, family stories, confidence sharing, animal watching, and dreaming aloud, I did absolutely nothing at all except live and love.
At the end of this simply abundant day of bliss, I realized that I'd been given a restorative gift: sacred idleness.
An unexpected, melodic day of undoing
to balance the discordant days of doing too much.
Like grace, this blessing had come out of the blue; it was completely impractical but absolutely necessary, and it was savored with thanksgiving.
End Quote
We have been told to "cease to be idle" ,
but we also need to rest.
The definition of idle is to avoid work, to be lazy,
to have no purpose, to be pointless...
Does that sound like well earned rest to you?
No.
So "sacred idleness" is not a very good phrase,
but it's for lack of a better one.
Even God took a day of rest after 6 long days of work.
It's okay to take a day. Or two.
Sometimes it takes a whole week.
Sometimes it's preventative,
sometimes it's restorative.
It's okay to take the time to rest.
It's good for you.
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Gratitude Journal
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1) I love getting to watch my kids grow up. Watching Jacob ride his scooter today was the best thing ever.
2) Mom jokes. Someone had spilled soda on the slide at the park, and I had forgotten a towel...but I did have diapers and wipes. So I soaked the puddle up with a diaper, and showed the kids and I was like "soda diaper!" and they laughed so hard. They think I'm hilarious.
3) Getting to talk to my best friend today. Quality, not quantity. And she is definitely good quality.
4) Nachos, and family coming over for dinner.
5) Cake. Do you remember when we were supposed to make a cake from scratch? Yeah, well, I finally did it. And it was awful.
Note to self- find a good recipe. Better homes and garden chocolate cake sucks, it fell apart completely crumbling and un frostable. Better homes and garden red waldorf cake was awful. And the recipe that I thought was my family's special recipe apparently wasn't. I have not had good luck with chocolate cake. But I'm going to keep trying. I should probably ask my mom again for the right recipe.
This is why I'm going to keep trying, for this face.
Notice how Chase keeps getting closer and closer.
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