Slowing Down on a Sunday Afternoon

My mother taught me to love Sunday afternoons. So I'm trying hard to love this one. You have to catch the right "pace" to nail a good Sunday afternoon. The trick is not to be too productive, but yet not become so relaxed that it could be mistaken for paralysis. So far, I'm doing pretty well.

Here are the highlights:

• drank two cups of creamed earl grey (sweetened, with milk)
• ate two crumpets, smothered in butter and plum jam
• had a Skype call with my dear cousin from Montreal. It was her first time on Skype, it was hilarious to see how excited she was, and she got to show me around her house, which was cool
• had a Skype call with my other cousin from Montreal and two of her three boys. Dylan asked me if we grow mangoes where I live (we don't)
• spent a few minutes tidying off my desk
• read a few chapters of a new novel (Sheila Curran's Everyone She Loved)
• listened to one of my favourite tunes sung by K.D. Lang

Now I am waiting for Yoga Kid to get home, she went to pick up First Born. We are having family dinner for the first time in a while. Everybody is so busy these days, I'm really looking forward to being together for a meal. Soul Mate has his specialty ribs baking in the oven. He smothers them in garlic, covers them with orange slices and bakes them for hours, then tosses them in a secret bbq sauce and bakes them a while longer. I am going to make asparagus and salad. Lemon meringue pie for dessert.

Family, food, and as much reading as I can fit in. Exactly the way my mother taught me. Happy Sunday afteroon, everybody. As Leonard Cohen wrote, and K.D. Lang can really belt out...Hallelujah.

Meditating and Beaching It

I need to switch gears, so today I went to our local library to get an armful of books. My harried lifestyle these past months (years) has too often kept me from reading, my absolute favourite pastime. I thought I would pick up a good book or two on stress and burnout, but there weren't any on the shelf. Perplexing, since I searched the catalogue a few days ago and there appeared to be plenty available. I really wish whoever signed them all out, the very best of luck. I thought about taking out something on anxiety or depression, but just the thought of doing that made me anxious.

Not wanting to leave empty handed, I grabbed a book on meditation and a novel. The novel is a "beach book," Jane Green's Dune Road. I mean seriously, if a "beach book" by a New York Times bestselling author can't slow me down and cheer me up, nothing can.

The book on meditation is by Clark Strand, and is called Meditation without Gurus: A Guide to the Heart of Practice. Strand's goal in the book is to simplify meditation. Simple works for me. I especially like his philosophy on meditation, in that he cautions readers against trying to become "expert" at meditation. Not becoming expert at something right now works for me. Says Strand, "Meditation ought to decrease the drivenness of our lives, not make it worse." He goes on to explain:

"The person who meditates—whether for five minutes or five hours a day—wants to keep one area of his or her life that is not driven, that does not draw them ceaselessly away from the fundamental enoughness, sanity, and beauty of the world. The person who truly meditates, and is not caught up in some neurotic game, knows that peace, love, happiness, contentment—everything happens right now." (8-9)

Love it. And I'm going to love the beach book too. Right now.