Saturday, January 23, 2010

I love...

standing here in my breakfast room (on those very rare mornings when consciousness precedes sunrise) with a hot cup of tea in a cozy polar fleece cocoon watching the orange-blue-crimson streaks of the sun paint the underside of the clouds before the grey reigns supreme.

It seems to me that some people regard a new day as a responsibility of sorts.
Some consider new days as merely inevitable.
I want to be one of those people who think of each day as an opportunity.

Time is a finite resource, you know, and whether I choose to spend mine curled up on the couch watching movies, chatting online with friends, teaching my kids, wandering a museum, playing with a friend, motorcycle riding, or snuggled in bed, I want to make thoses choices deliberately,
not based on some external evaluation of appropriate time allotment, but choices that reflect my values, desires, and priorities.

The important part there? The deliberation.

Today I choose to blog, to play with my kids and husband, to visit with my auntie, and to go over to some friends' house for dinner where we will eat comfort food and play board games.

Today, as on many other days, I will dawdle deliberately; I will allow myself to be distracted when the laundry needs switched, I will read when I have calls to return, I will check blogs, email accounts, and Facebook when I could be vacuuming or dusting. I will do all these things and I will not refer to them as wasting time because they are the activities I CHOOSE.

I may not fill every minute with 60 seconds distance run but I will fill it with 60 seconds of something I deem worthy, even if it is staring over the treetops as flaming streaks dissolve to grey.

8 comments:

Jeni said...

And like you, today I am doing pretty much what I want, in the order I wish to do it too and much of what I want to do today involves... Reading! I'm trying to finish the book "Chesapeake" so then I can return for a bit to my embroidery project and hopefully soon will get it done too! In between this and that, I'm reading blogs in a more leisurely fashion in hopes of not getting way, way behind as I did the other day when I only had time to read and not stop and comment. So today -guess you could say I'm sort of "smelling the roses" a bit. (Oh and I'm also cooking a big dish of macaroni salad to take to the dinner after church tomorrow and if I'm lucky, I squeeze in enough time to cook up a big batch of tomato-meat sauce to set up a large pan of lasagne then too -or rather two pans -one for church and one for supper here -tomorrow night. And lest I forget, I'm also the adult in charge of the two grandkids this afternoon and evening too -hopefully keeping them from maiming each other too much.

cathy said...

I have chosen to read your blog instead of serving my husband a meal, yep ... feels godd to me :)

S said...

Oh man, my spider plants froze because I left them outside while I went to India....sigh, yours look lovely.
And you know I am just a brat who does what I want when I want to, so I get that.
Life IS short, thanks for that gentle reminder to appreciate every second, girl.
(hugs)

Word veri: FULLI fully enjoy your day my dear!

S said...

PS Is it still the blue fleece cocoon? :P

Logophile said...

Jeni~ that is the busiest rose sniffing day ever! But hey, anytime you can get some reading done, its a good day.

Cathy~ Well, what WOULDN'T be better than that alternative, really?

Susie~ Poor spider plants. The cocoon is purple these days :p

Cooper said...

I never knew there was consciousness before sunrise...interesting concept...
Thanx for stopping by for MM -
my condolences concerning your Mom...

OpenID seems to be malfuunctioning this morning...Coopernicus

Fred said...

Well written!

I spend my early hours at school trying to catch up with essays and lesson plans. I could learn a thing or two from this post.

lime said...

good for you! i applaud that and i'm glad i treated myself to coming over here just now.