I have been very busy since August of 2010. I returned to school in a new grade level assignment and worked extra hard to be prepared so that I wouldn't fail. I jumped into the last month of Andrae Gonzales' campaign for one of two Bakersfield City School District trustee positions, and was thrilled to participate in his eventual victory. [Of all who ran, Andrae received the most votes, beating out the 3 others by over 300 votes]
My hard work has paid off. I am happy in my first grade assignment--I love this six-year old world I got thrust into--and I am overjoyed to witness the beginnings of Andrae's good work on the school board. I'm now video-recording all BCSD board meetings, have taken on the role of organizer to bring Race to Nowhere to Bakersfield, and have decided to stick around and participate in Andrae's nascent Children First group, which will meet for the third time March 17th. The negotiations to fund Race to Nowhere have taken longer than expected, and my husband jokes that sometimes he feels he is married to a politician, but it's all been worth it. I regret not one day. Busy? Heck, yes. Happy? You betcha.
But all this activity has resulted in me savoring what little downtime I have. I don't think I appreciated those times so much before. For example, last week, I sat at a Starbucks waiting for Andrae to arrive so that we could work on some minor details for Race to Nowhere. He was running a little behind, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. As I sat with my Cinnamon Dolce Latte at a small table by the window, the late afternoon sun floated through the glass and made me feel serene. It was a beautiful day, my corner of Starbucks was quiet, and my coffee drink was yummy. It was about 15-20 minutes of simple bliss. An extraordinarily ordinary moment, the likes of which I was so grateful for. I got a serendipitous opportunity to empty my busy little mind and just BE. It was really nice. I plan on allowing myself more moments like those.
Happy weekend, everybody.
Happy weekend to you my friend!
ReplyDeleteAs someone who can get crazy busy at times, I have come to appreciate and to be protective of my downtime. I love your description of savoring that unexpected gift of time to just exist, with no agenda. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves to breathe. That is why I don't care for hectic vacations any more. I just want to have time to do whatever I want, which sometimes is to do nothing.
ReplyDelete@Pasgarvey: Amen about "hectic vacations". Mostly, our vacations are no longer over-scheduled. Re: work, I think we Americans are working harder and harder with less and less downtime. I know my job as a teacher requires I take home work almost every weekend. When you add personal projects to that, and/or family activities, life can be so 24/7. Yeah, it's nice to be able to just sit and de-compress, morph into a Human Being, and not a Human Doing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. :))