Sundays are by far the hardest day of the week for me to
find something new. If every day has a
pattern – Sundays are a rut ground into the earth reminiscent of the Oregon
Trail. My Sundays consist of some
combination of the following in no particular order and often with occasional
additions or omissions: wake up, decide I need to sleep longer, go back to
sleep, wake up again, teach dance, exercise, procrastinate, grade,
procrastinate, lesson plan, procrastinate, go to Mass, procrastinate, watch
something on television, read, procrastinate, surrender to the reality that I
have to go to work the next day and do my job, go to sleep.
You may have noticed that the common thread that holds my
Sundays together is procrastination.
This can take many forms, including but not limited to looking at random
people’s pictures on Facebook, looking at random pins on Pinterest, watching
television, reading, napping, contemplating my navel, doing laundry – you get
the idea. Basically I have a hard time
facing the impending workweek – particularly during this time of year. Today was no exception. My procrastination of choice today was to get
a pedicure while reading the US weekly I bought along with my fake and bake
cookies last Wednesday. It was full of
salacious celebrity gossip and vapid tidbits of absolutely nothing. It was perfect for an hour or so of
procrastination, and my toes are now a perfectly obnoxious shade of hot pink
that makes me happy just thinking about it.
I also taught dance, graded, ran, did laundry, went to Mass – you get
the idea. It was a typical Sunday with
very little that was new.
It was in the spaces in between the procrastination and the
usual “stuff” filling my Sunday that I recognized the “something new” seeping
into my awareness, reflected and refracted into my consciousness by the
remaining inches of snow on the ground.
Today, I made a concerted effort to appreciate that big, burning star
that gives us life and light. I saw the sun. I squinted against its brightness during my
morning run, and instead of being annoyed by the glare it created on my
not-so-clean windshield, I appreciated that the glare was there at all. I put on my sunglasses, and then to better
appreciate the view, I took them off. I
noticed how blue the sky was, and felt the left side of my body warm as I sat
in traffic on my way home from teaching dance.
As I came around the curve on 94, I noticed just how beautiful the city
looked with the glint of the sun on the buildings, and, looking out on that
breathtaking landscape of steel and glass, I could almost imagine it was the
middle of July and I was on my way to the beach. In this month of twenty-eight days so often
devoid of sunlight – today was a welcome change.
I haven’t looked at the forecast yet, so I don’t know if the
sun will be making an encore appearance this week. Even if it doesn’t, I’m glad I made the effort
to appreciate it when I got the chance.
Roll on spring and sunshine.
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