My day off
I’m trying to practice what I preach today. I’m trying to take the day off. No appointments, no meetings, no (hard) work. How’s it going so far?
Well, mostly OK. It’s hard for me to take a day off, but it’s not because I am virtuous or anything. I just allow my life to get filled up with activity, work or otherwise. I could work this whole day cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, working on finances, cleaning the basement, obsessively checking email (I should say that one twice), and generally filling up the day with a thousand activities.
In all of that activity, I would have the satisfaction of getting things done, getting things clean, getting myself a little more caught up in my life. But I would miss out on what my dogs are doing right now, and doing every day in mid-morning: they’re lying around. They are living right now in joyous silence, delightful peace. Like all other mammals on earth–except benighted humans–once my dogs have done their business, gotten something to eat, and made sure they’re safe, they flop down for a nap. They don’t take themselves too seriously.
For other mammals, this is just acting according to their nature. For us, we have to work at it. When is the last time you just took a day to do whatever you want, for hours on end? When is the last time you stopped taking yourself so seriously and decided to flop down for a nap? Again, I shouldn’t be preaching this if I can’t do it myself, so I’m off to the couch with the dogs. They look pretty happy right now!
