The Gift I Gave Myself

Friday afternoon.

It's an unfamiliar familiarity after spending 5 weeks with no work-related schedules - no anything-related schedules - to give you any sense of the beginnings and endings of work weeks or the onset of ...ahhhh....the weekend.

But here I am. Friday afternoon of the first week back, and feeling almost the same as if I was still at the cottage. Well, no. Just sat outside for a bit with my journal and....well....even with my chair turned toward the farmer's field.....being as close as we are to the roundabout isn't ANYTHING like being on the deck. Especially when there's a fender bender and somebody really loses their temper. Hoooo!

Even so, it's this thing, this understanding or something, that I am ending off the first week back in as UNpressurized a state as I can remember ending a work week in......well, forever. And I'm pretty sure it's because of the gift I gave myself.

I had determined, when I still was on the deck, that this first week back I would do nothing but that which served my soul's need for order and clarity and respect. I respected myself this week. What that meant was that I had NO meetings. I did celebrate a friend's birthday. I did reconnect with another friend over coffee. And I enjoyed a breakfast with the Elders of Highview, just to be glad to be with them again and show them my tan as proof of the last 5 weeks of resting. But I held back on anything that would pull or push or clutter or twist or muddy....or put anything new on my list. Just this week.

And what a great gift that has been. Without rushing, I have cleaned out files, set up new binders, prayed over and researched sermons for dates far away. I have reordered books on shelves, read and journalled outside, and pondered my academic goals online. Without rushing...did I mention that?

At home I sat and watched small children play in the pool, read stories, purged my closet AND took it all away to the Salvation Army. I cleaned out some cluttered spaces and bought a new swim bag and watched TV. Had a lovely, long conversation with my remarkable daughter. Played a game of Super Scrabble with my ferociously competitive husband (who is also remarkable in many ways, just ferociously competitive). Ate ice cream. Yeah...like that.

And coming to the end of this week, I'm thinking, I ought to give myself this gift every once in a while. A no meeting week. A week devoted to only that which serves my soul's need for order and clarity and respect. Because, as insignificant as all that may sound (Boring!!!! as one of my friends complains loudly), it's exactly what I need to keep me grounded.

It certainly was a fabulous way to end my time of resting at the cottage and prepare for a more energized re-engagement in life. Which I am looking forward to, by the way......after the long holiday weekend :).

Hope your summer is providing LOTS of opportunities to respect your own soul, whatever that might look like.

Safe weekend, everyone.