I love this time of year. Like clockwork, my body remembers.
As a kid, I’d get out of school, find and my brothers and I would go straight to my Grandma Rosemary’s house in Ottawa, Illinois. We’d run in the sprinkler, go to Pitstix pond, eat ice cream and just hang out. When we returned home 2 weeks later, my mom always said that we were so much calmer, so much slower moving, we were nice & easy.
But wait, I still want this kind of a summer vacation! There’s a biological part of me that’s confused every year when this doesn’t happen.
Is anyone with me on this? Do you still, on some level, expect your summer to be the way it was when you were 7?
Now that I’m an adult, I don’t have this same let loose time right as summer begins, but I still feel the longing. The longing to do nothing, or nothing much. And I can also feel like I don’t want to do the things I’m “supposed to” (any Gretchen Rubin “Rebels” out there?) even if they’re things I usually like doing.
So, last week, I decided to make a list of what I would do if I could do whatever I wanted the first week my daughters were out of school.
Here’s what I wrote:
1. Drink iced coffee. As much as I want.
2. Walk barefoot in grass. Wander.
3. Draw with crayons with my daughters. Maybe make a vision board or just do silly self-portraits.
4. Make bead necklaces (only if I feel like buying beads, otherwise not).
5. Decorate the house (maybe)
6. Watch one kid cartoon movie cuddled with kiddos. Later watch something grown up I like while they are napping.
7. Cook or order out healthy food! Get fruit smoothies!
8. Reflect on the day, write about it.
Wow, did that ever feel good. As soon as I got the words on the page, I felt a sense of elation. What soon followed was the “You can’t do that” voice, but alas the elation had already convinced me to at least try some of it.
So, what happened. Well, I still had to work, but miraculously some things shifted so we made our way through the list little by little with some deviations (one day we started the day with a tea party and THAT was pretty awesome)
What does your list look like? What would be on it? Please share in the comments below!
Love,
Anne
I was lucky enough to see you at Passim’s. I was the pushy broad who asked that you finish the unfinished song experiments. I said that the E song didn’t remind me of Regina Spektor or Sarah Barellies, but instead, put me in mind of assonance as in Poe’s The Raven. I told you I thought E was a verse, not a chorus. Here was my thought, You could build it around this old thing, “A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.” No doubt other people have. No doubt you could do it differently/ better. Please forgive me if I am being pedantic. I really enjoyed the evening. I look forward to seeing you the next time you swing through Boston.
Leean,
I adore you speaking up and also sharing your thoughts here! Awesome. Thanks for the vote of confidence and I will definitely finish this song and the others. I love that you call it E 🙂 Makes me smile.
Peace,
Anne