Thursday, June 23, 2011

Summer Plans - Part A

I'm heading into my first summer in 139 years where I don't have plans.
No travel.
No vacation.
No big project.

Feels weird.
Irresponsible.
Boring.
Wasteful.

Also, for the first time since I started this job, my request for 'reduced summer hours' was denied. So I have to work everyday like a normal grown up. Well, everyday except the first two weeks of July, which I have to take as holiday time. Seriously. What am I supposed to do? I had hoped to make it down to Creation this year, but, despite my earnest request, they wouldn't change the date for me. Creation will, like it always has, continue to take place during the third week of July.

:)

So.
Indeed.
SO.

So, as I stare into the upcoming summer months, my favoritist months of the year, I know I have to challenge myself to make them rock despite my disappointment that I couldn't do what I really wanted this year. Watch me be all mature about it...
















(Like my new table cloth and candles, by the way? I totally do.)

See those books?
They will be integral to the Summer of 2011:
Half the Sky - I will read one chaper every second day and absorb the horror of:

  • sex trafficking and forced prostitution
  • gender based violence, including honor killings and mass rape
  • maternal mortality 
The Right to Write - I will "do" five chapters per week. This is what she says in the introduction:

We should write because it is human nature to write. Writing claims our world. It makes it directly and specifically our own. We should write because humans are spiritual beings and writing is a powerful form of prayer and meditation, connecting us both to our own insights and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance as well. We should write because writing brings clarity and passion to the act of living. We should write because writing is good for the soul.

Picking words is like picking apples... this one? Looks delicious.

Every Day deserves a Chance - I will read this, a few chapters per week, and finish it by the end of July. I'll pick another inspirational book to read in August. 

"Days are bite size portions of life, the God-designed segments of life management. Each day is:
84,000 heartbeats
One thousand four hundred and forty minutes
A complete rotation of the earth
A circle of the sundial
Two dozen flips on the hourglass
Both a sunrise and a sunset
A gift of twenty hour unlived, untouched hours. 
And if you can stack one good day on top of another and another you will link together a good life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the kids were little, we used to sit down at the start of the summer and make a poster of all the things we wanted to do, learn, visit, read, and try during the sunniest two months of the year. I will think on this while I sleep and finish my list tomorrow.

Shalom,


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