Theme Thursday: Recess

Theme Thursday hosted by Cari at Clan Donaldson.

I got out to the second half of Mass this morning and even had enough stamina to let the Squirt loose on the playground afterward.

The detox/cleanse has smoothed the way to discipline in other aspects of my life.  I already mentioned the growing tidiness of my home; but there is also a clarity of time and direction that has been absent from my life, especially recently, what with my self-imposed and over-burdened calendar.

With rhythm comes freedom.  The paradox of living one's life according to a (semi) rigid schedule is that rather than absorb time, it multiplies it.  I find myself with more of it on my hands than if I'd had a shapeless, unplanned day, with the hours laid out before my feet, seeming to go on and on forever.  The impression is deceptive, and it tricks one into a sense of too-much-time-to-be-wasted.  With the result being, it is wasted.  While a day divided into concrete plans forces me to make the most of every scrap of second.

Even in a day without appointments and work scheduled, I enjoy rising and setting to my morning routine: vitamins, breakfast, prayer, dress and groom myself and my son, make the bed, clear up the kitchen, check the e-mail, and blog.  Then I can turn to the tasks I must attend.  Or I may take some leisure time: read a book, watch a television show, call or write a friend, surf the net, free-write, play with my son.  Grocery shopping is an activity which I love to use to divide the day into sections, and more frequent marketing helps me with meal planning, healthful eating, and budgeting.  It's also an outing for entertaining the short attention span of my busy toddler.

Like all aspects of Christian living, it goes against first instinct to restrict one's treasured freedom; to say "no" sometimes to people who ask something of you; to anchor mealtimes throughout the day and clear all other commitments for the daily bread.  But I've found that I end up gaining all these things back again, and more--the energy to visit with friends, the satisfaction of accomplishing a day's important tasks, and plenty of time for soul and self, for rest and relaxation, for play and . . . yes, recess!