A Morning Off!

Since Sunday, 20 cm of snow has fallen on our fair city. I have logged in almost 3 1/2 hours of shovelling, in that time. The mound of snow that is piling up in my front yard was officially deemed 'Mount Colleen' by me yesterday morning. All of the snow shovelling was bad enough ... but what does one do with all of the snow??

So I slept in this morning and lazed around in my PJ's until the last minute. Just because I could! Now, this is not what was supposed to happen. My internal clock woke me up around 5 am and I felt wide awake enough to get up. I could have and I should have chosen to exercise. But I didn't. I wanted a morning off!

As my feet are coming back to the ground after my 5 day holiday away from every single responsibility in my life, I am wondering how to maintain the serenity within. How can I keep nurturing myself in a way where I don't literally have to pack up and fly away?

I believe that Sundays are meant to be a day of leisure. No matter how many stores are open, no matter what there is on the eternal 'to-do' list ... a person requires one day off. One uncommitted day.

Several years of Sundays ago, I had planned to go away for the day and leave my family and responsibilities behind. I had organized my life, chores and even prepared meals ahead so that I could take this 'day'. I ended up with a stomach flu and wasn't able to go. But what I had instead, was one entire day off. All of my work was done, meals were made and the house was running itself. It was a day that energized me like few others.

In today's world, stress in the work place seems to be running rampant. People work shift-work, overtime, on-call and self-employed people never get to completely step away from their work. Stores are open 7 days a week and some are open 24 hours a day. Even when we have time off, there is no one day where the world around us slows down so we are forced to slow down. We are working more days, available to work longer hours and then squeezing in our chores, errands and tending to the never-ending list of things to do when we do have hours to call our own.

It seems that every where around you, people are touched by someone in their life who is facing life threatening health problems. It is affecting people from all walks of life and age is not always a factor. We know more and have better health care, yet many people's health is stopping them in their tracks.

I say it often and I firmly believe, that when you don't take the time that you need to replenish your body's reserves, your body will eventually stop you. We are very fortunate when the warning call is relatively minor and we are back on our feet within a short time. But everyone is not so lucky.

Give yourself a break that you can enjoy, before your body forces it upon you. Find some time that is carved out just for you and build up your reserves. You just never know when those reserves will be called upon to dig you out of 20 cm of snow!