Yesterday I had a million plans for things I wanted to make progress on – working on my novel, maybe going for a run, doing laundry, clearing out a couple of cupboards, writing a blog post, working on my quilting projects, playing the piano….the list was long, but probably do-able. I went to to church, chatted with some friends and then after coming home and giving everyone lunch was all ready to set to.

Except I couldn’t.

I just couldn’t bring myself to start anything at all.

The sun was shining through the living room window, the sofa was teenager-free and enticing and I realized that more than anything I just wanted to stop. I wanted to leave all the things that would just as well get done another day and take it easy for once. That was quite hard for me because under normal circumstances I’m not a sofa-lounger. Not at all.

So that is precisely what I did. And it was wonderful!

Not to say that I did nothing though. I sat and went through the big pile of magazines that were waiting to be read, clipped out the articles I wanted to keep and very sedately went through my in-tray and dealt with a whole lot of not-very exciting admin that had been hanging around for ages cluttering it up. Then I took time and went through all my emails and filed or answered them all. I took my time and gave each step the attention it needed. I wasn’t rushing and trying to cross things off a list as quickly as possible. I actually enjoyed doing the whole lot properly.

It was all very pleasant, and very unstressed. Gradually as the afternoon wore on people joined me, quietly reading or doing homework. No noise, just each of us companionably getting on with what we needed to do. No fighting, no squabbling, even remarkably, very little chatting. Somehow my quiet – in German we call it Ruhe – seemed to rub off on the rest of the family.

Today I feel as though I have a big headstart on the week. Things are under control, or at least significantly more under control than normal. All those little not very important adminy things are done and it feels like I’ve been given a dose of space and freedom. Does that sound crazy? Well maybe I am a little strange sometimes, but I really did get up this morning with a light heart. Clearing the decks did me good and I think just stopping and relaxing did too. I should probably try to do that a bit more often. It seemed to have a positive knock-on effect on the rest of the family too!

Helen

This entry was posted on Monday, March 21st, 2011 at 10:43 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.