The Week that Was....

I feel like I have been very busy this week, but if you ask me what I did, I'm not sure I could tell you. Maybe because it has been so H.O.T..... and even humid, for the desert. I guess I have been very busy filling and emptying iced beverage glasses.

And I cleaned my house. That is a Big Thing, when it is hot and humid, and it hasn't really been done for awhile. I also tried out a new guitar (which I did not yet purchase,) and I began a new painting (which I did not yet finish,) and I sent the above little painting off to it's new home. (Thank You again, Julie, for supporting my Art Habit!)

While I did all these things, and felt 'busy,' but also guilty for not actually accomplishing more, I thought of my grandmothers, as I often do. I don't remember seeing them 'feel guilty' about not doing more. They both did quite a lot, but they also both knew that, in the heat of a summer's day, sometimes the best and right thing to do was to sip iced tea in front of a fan, watching a 'story' on TV; or to find shade on the porch with the newspaper; or to lie down in a cool bedroom with a good book, never minding if a short nap was the result. My grandmothers were both early-risers and early-to-bed-ers. They weeded their gardens and baked bread in the cool of the morning, then let the heat stop their industry, if need be. I am a grandmother myself now, but I don't feel like I live the simple and wise lives I saw my own grandmothers live. I run errands in the heat of the day. I chase my tail, trying to catch up with all the impossible tasks and endless ToDo lists I have set for myself.

Time to wise up, Granny! That iced tea I have been hauling around as I go here and there? I need to sit and enjoy it, letting the glass sweat with condensation, instead of sweating so much myself! And I need to grab a book or a magazine from that tall-to-toppling stack by the bed, and get better acquainted with the glider on my porch. The world will not end if I give in to the season a bit. In fact, maybe it will open up and become sweeter. And maybe my grandchildren will come to learn from me, that slowing down might just be a wise way to live, after all.