Lazy Days of Summer?

Rolling into the hot, Texas dog-days of summer, I promise myself to make time to relax.  I mean really relax; my mind, soul, and body.  I'm fortunate to have my summers.  There is a reason educators are given this time off, and it has nothing to do with agrarian tradition! Spend a few days inside the classroom and you'll understand why, which takes me back to my point.  Project RELAXATION.

Kenny Chesney, Jimmy Buffett, Zac Brown Band, and other country artists sing songs for beach picnics and bbq dinners.  Those easy-going greats wrote summertime anthems for the weary to remind us of forgotten warm afternoons from days past.  "Bare feet on the dashboard," "swimmin' holes," a blown out "flip-flop," and "toes in the water;"  Now this group knows how to unwind.  Then again, they are not mothers.




So, where are these long-lost glory days of summer?  

Continually striving to become the perfect mother, wife, hostess, and decorator my days are filled with tinkering and fiddling, always busy.  My mantra, idle hands build an idle life.  My husband likes to watch movies at home, but I can't sit still long enough to enjoy one.  "Besides," I ask him, "why watch someone else's life when you could live your own?" So since June 6th, we have ventured inside the city to visit the JKF Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Arboretum, the Dallas Zoo; we've attended concerts and two firework shows, eaten at a variety of new restaurants, and perused the Bishop Arts District. I've read five books, cooked countless meals, baked a myriad of desserts, decorated the reading room, planted flowers, cleaned out the garage and deep cleaned the house.  On the side, I've continued my love affair with hair and coiffed some fabulous dos (pronounced 'doos'-as in hair) for friends.  I've engaged in countless conversations, catching up with old friends.  Madilyn attended tennis camp; Bella worked as well as prepared for her college friends to visit.  The days zipped by with all this busy-ness. My hands build life and I love it!  I eagerly embark on the day's journey.  I am Mrs. Dalloway but like her, sometimes I wonder why?  Woolf in her melancholy way reminds us of the question: what's the purpose in all this movement? When Mr. Walsh compliments her, calling her the perfect hostess she cringes.  She despises the simple classification and thinks it silly.  But later she remembers "...that a woman's gift, of making a world of her own wherever she happened to be" is extraordinary.  I agree. 

However, now is the time to rest. Next week I'm going to Seattle with Matt and I'm going plans-free.  I'll leisurely walk the streets allowing Fate's hand to guide me. I'm leaving space for Serendipity to work her magic.  When the bright sun warms my face, I'll pause to capture the feeling.  I'll enjoy the city without judgement, without agenda.  And though I won't have beach or sand,  I'll have adventure.  Adventure without the to-do list.  

~Truly, Cinderella