These are a few of my favorite things.
I started a new blog post about these things because I thought I might have something insightful to say about them, but I don't think I do...
Just that sometimes they're better than grading papers and checking things off to-do lists.
That sometimes it's okay to have a sneak peek of summer.
And that more people should have the benefit that teachers do of taking a couple months to reconnect to the important things, like for me– reading, tea drinking, napping, reading, and writing.
And that everyone should take more time for the things that make them them.
Even now, there is a nagging voice inside that says, "Grade papers..." Read that in the voice of a cartoon ghost. "Graaaaaade paaaaaapers!" And there is a voice that says I should have read something more worthwhile than a Sherlock Holmes novel. Oh you know, like the Bible, which I absolutely do not read enough.
And there is conditioned guilt over napping (not enough to stop my habits but enough to ruin the pleasure in them). Why did I have to fall asleep while reading even if it was just for an hour or less? I should have done something... like cleaned the bathroom. Sorry, husband, that our house is such a mess.
What is it with all this over-examining?
Jason borrows a line from Seinfeld, "Stuff your sorries in a sack!" and asks why I say I'm sorry all the time and tells me to stop being sorry... even if I should be sorry for letting my chores go undone while he always does his self-imposed chores perfectly and on time.... but there I am being sorry again.
The point is, I find so many things to regret. Even a glorious afternoon of doing whatever the heck I want gets sullied by the endless coulda-woulda-shouldas in my head.
"Am I living it right?" playing incessantly even on the small things. "Why, Georgia, why?"
Why sorry?
Why unsure?
Why regretful?
Why don't I just enjoy my book and my Sherlock obsession and my tea and my nap?
Last summer's resolution was to love teaching.
Here's this year's resolution– to love what I do when I do it and not question or regret or wonder. Just drink my tea and relax and smile and be happy. Or work and smile and be happy.
At least sometimes, in the right times and seasons.
And I think today is one of those times.
There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him? –Ecclesiastes 2:24-25
