I have a habit, which I have been nurturing for decades, of filling up every available moment of my weekends with activity — and mostly social activity. This habit has served me reasonably well over the years, but I hereby pronounce that I am turning over a new leaf.
Jonathan and I are going to try to purposefully set aside Sundays as a day of rest and togetherness. We will gather with our community in the morning to worship, but between lunch time and bed time we are resolved to relax and be together.
That might include hiking, napping, doing laundry, working around the house, watching a movie or cooking a meal together, but the core of the concept is that we will be together, doing an activity (or non-activity) of our choosing.
As with most decisions, choosing one thing essentially results in “not choosing” another. In this case, what we are not choosing is social events and group activities.
I can already see that this resolution is going to prove somewhat difficult for me to stick with. It has always been hard for me to turn down invitations to spend time with friends and family — as an extrovert, I have an almost endless appetite for “people time.” But I also desperately need down time, and time to connect with my partner and regroup before the new week begins.
Last Sunday was the catalyst for this decision — we had no commitments after church, and ended up coming home and relaxing, making a mid afternoon snack and cuddling up to watch a fun Japanese movie that had been in our Netflix queue. At dusk, the light from the setting sun was absolutely spectacular, and the air had the crisp quality of an early autumn day. We went for a walk through our neighborhood, and arriving back home discovered a striking patch of Columbines blooming in our front yard.
Then Jonathan whipped up some beautiful homemade sushi for dinner. We had such a good day — at the end of it I felt filled up, instead of drained. I want to feel like that every Sunday night…so we’re going to see if we can make that happen.
Does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with the work of David Lynch? I haven’t seen it all, but I find that when I watch one of his movies I vacillate between being smitten by his ultra quirky, over the top characters and being completely annoyed by the sheer indulgence of it all.
In December, Jonathan and I saw his latest film, “Inland Empire,” which turned out to be three solid hours of the discombobulated innards of Lynch’s warped brain, with no discernable plot. By the end, I was incensed: “Why does he think he can string together a bunch of his whacked out stream of consciousness ramblings and expect the American public to pay money to sit through it?” Jonathan pointed out that with all its quirks, the film was entertaining from beginning to end. He was right — Lynch kept my attention for a solid three hours. Maybe that was enough?
I have just started watching “Twin Peaks” on DVD, and I’m having the same reaction. At turns I am howling with laughter at his gutsy and unbelievable characters, and then rolling my eyes over an extended dream sequence or ridiculous plot twist.
I can’t decide…is he a fool or a genius?
We have been out of town the past two weekends on various adventures, which are always fun but usually result in coming home to a house that hasn’t been cleaned, emptying suitcases into a big pile of laundry that needs attention, opening the fridge to find that the produce has all gone slimy and there’s not much else to choose from, and living in a perpetual state of exhaustion.
This past weekend, we stayed home. We still managed to pack the weekend full of activity, but somehow it was much less tiring — I think I had forgotten how good it feels to just be home, making progress on projects, getting the house clean, cooking dinner, and sleeping in.
Highlights include:
Mmmm, the power of home. So good.
