Nostalgia reigns at least once every summer for me. How about you?
Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.
— Ada Louise Huxtable
Do you remember a time when you felt the WHOLE SUMMER stretching out before you? Remember that joyous walk home on the last day of school when you wanted to shout: SCHOOL’S OUT FOR THE SUMMER – YAY!
For me, summer was a time of possibilities tangled up with long boring days of “nothing to do”… until my Mom would throw up her hands and put all us kids to work! I know now that summer is a mixed blessing for parents… it’s a more relaxed time with moments of fun interspersed with lifetimes of being chief Kool-Aid maker, bottle-washer, daycare arranger and on-call-chauffer. And if Mom has an 8-5 job outside as well as inside the home, well then, the late Erma Bombeck says it all in a nutshell:
Being a child at home alone in the summer is a high-risk occupation. If you call your mother at work thirteen times an hour, she can hurt you.
Wise woman that she was, Erma also said: Continue reading » Lazy, Crazy Days of Summer
I challenge you – Take time out. Experience your easy entertainment a little more creatively than usual.
Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of toys, and personal entertainment depended on individual ingenuity and imagination — think up a story and go live it for an afternoon.
— Terry Brooks
A few weeks ago, in the company of friends, I mockingly discounted a recommendation from the Reflection Booklet we use as a guide for our discussions:
Avoid easy entertainment and distraction this week. Turn off the television and do something that gives rise to real joy. Take a walk, work in a garden, play a musical instrument, read a book, call a friend you have been out of touch with for a long time.
— www.sccquest.org
As I read those words, I thought: Yeah, that’s NOT gonna happen… especially the Continue reading » Easy Entertainment, Easy Distraction…
Do you ever feel like you’re swimming in circles of muddled-in-a-puddle thinking?
Dare to turn life on its end, and you may find that topsy-turvy is a truer perspective than turvy-topsy.
— Robert Brault
It’s amazingly easy to think that my view of the world is the only view – that my fishbowl IS reality, that my “story” is THE story. But this ego-centric viewpoint – the world revolves around me – leaves us all swimming within our own little circles of concern. And, confined within puny little universes, we’re deprived of a world of wisdom. So I’m proposing a fanciful “come out and play” approach to escaping the trap of muddled-in-a-puddle thinking.
Before we start playing, let’s consider why I’m inviting you to play. Jacueline Bigar, whose horoscopes I find insightful, suggests:
Take an overview. Detach from the story and eye the big picture. No longer play out a role in a dispute or conversation. Become an onlooker. You will understand much more. [italics mine]
Today, for this post, we play so we can expand our understanding of the possibilities. We play so we can begin to recognize that:
There’s an alternative. There’s always a third way, and it’s not a combination of the other two ways. It’s a different way.
— David Carradine
But sometimes it’s really hard to detach, to “become an onlooker” when we’re embroiled in a dispute, or tangled in a web of complications, or simply numbed by one too many snags. So how do we get a fresh perspective that allows us to step back and see the bigger picture? Try this: Continue reading » Come on Out and Play
You’re almost there – squeeze in some time to savor the gifts of the season!
There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.
— Erma Bombeck
The carol exclaims: Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat!
The children fuss: WHEN will it be Christmas???
And the parents plead: So much to do, slow down, slow down…
You’re almost there… I invite you to heed Erma Bombeck’s advice and let your inner child come out to play… find ways to savor the joys and blessings of these last few days of Christmas.
The To-Do List That Stole Christmas
Sure, your list is 10 days long and your time-line is down to 48 hours or less… what’s a body to do? Continue reading » Savoring the Gifts of the Season
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