Search This Blog

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

In Praise of Doing Nothing

Some people are great musicians. Consider my friend Suzy. She can make a single cello note sound like heaven. Or maybe it's the other way around--and she makes heaven sound like a single note from the cello. Anyway, she's really, really good.

Other people reign supreme in the kitchen, so skilled that they make chopping vegetables look downright sexy.

Me? I excel at doing nothing. Thus, my three-nap day, broken up with three walks, a few sips of a white-mocha something-er-other at Starbucks with friends, four and a half pages of "Cutting for Stone" and a mostly-completed crossword--rather pathetic, considering it's Tuesday.

Yeah, that's right. I had me a Capital-D Day! And I think you ought to have one, too. That's why I'm going to share some secrets with you:

1. It's possible to swim in a pool without doing laps. Actually, it's possible to be in a pool without even swimming. My point? We don't have to prove something every time we do something. Sometimes, showing up and soaking in it is plenty.

2. A really good calendar doesn't require a thing from us, except to enjoy the awesome, slo-mo reveal of next week's featured photo. Yeah, I still write down birthdays and when I think I might be having my period, but, otherwise, my calendars are tabla rosa to me.

3. Spring Creek Prairie is 20 minutes and 200 years away. It is always windy, always beautiful, always "out there." Today, its ponds were chock full of swollen tadpoles, their shores dotted with turtles and a muskrat or two. Oh, and there's no admission fee on Tuesdays.

4. When you go to a public library, you can get AS MANY BOOKS AND MATERIALS as you can cram in your car and NO ONE calls the cops! It's, like, unbelievable!

5. "No" is a beautiful, freeing word. Said enough, it even can add back the shine to our "yeses."

6. There is an amazing, free show just outside your window. It's called "nature." Or "neighbors." Or, in some regions of the world, "life." I recommend catching the next show, which starts in, oh, right now.

No comments:

Post a Comment