The dictionary defines a pastime as “something that amuses and serves to make time pass agreeably”. Sunday used to be a day of rest, a day to recover, a day to spend time with family. It was a pastime for families all over the world. However, in our hectic lives, too often Sunday becomes the day when we do our grocery shopping or our house cleaning – a far cry from the relaxing Sunday that people used to take for themselves. Well, yesterday, I had a lazy Sunday…and I enjoyed every single minute of it.
Let me start by saying that my wife was away for the weekend visiting some friends up North. I had the place to myself, I had done my cleaning on Saturday, and I woke up to a snow storm on Sunday. Because it was Easter, most stores and businesses were closed in town. It was to be a day spent at home, for sure. I rolled out of bed around 9am, stumbled to the kitchen to make some coffee, and took a seat on the couch. I turned on my laptop to check my websites and answer any emails, and took a gander at my Twitter account (talk about a time-waster!). By the time I finished having breakfast and all my coffee, it was 11am…and I had absolutely nothing that needed to get done. So I grabbed the book I am currently reading, turned on my Ray LaMontagne station on Pandora. com, and laid on the couch to read for a while. Hours went by until I realized I had skipped lunch and was starving. After taking a break to have some organic yogurt with organic hemp granola, I turned the Red Sox game on (on the computer, streaming) and sat for a few hours more watching the game. Are you sensing a pattern here yet?
A few hours later, still finding myself on the couch with a magazine, I turned on one of my favorite shows, The Amazing Race. While I watched, I had a nice salad for dinner and realized that I had been sitting on the couch, barely doing much of anything, for 12 straight hours. Talk about a Lazy Sunday! I took some time to jot down some blog post ideas, wrote out this post on the computer, and I am now headed to bed.
No responsibilities, no one to answer to, and nothing to take care of. What a day. I just went with the flow all day and found myself thoroughly relaxed come bed time. Now THAT is simple living. If only every day could be that quiet, right?
Ever have days like that? They don’t come along all that often, but when they do, you just have to take advantage of them!
I had a day like that on Friday. Our office was closed for the holiday weekend. I love days with nothing to do. Since we’re about to have a baby, I’m making some “do nothing” days because soon those days will be long gone …
Yes indeed Kristen, those days are almost gone! Good luck!
I prefer to have some of that “lazy day feeling” everyday 🙂 So my option is to get out of the house and do something fun – clam digging, wood cutting, fishing, gardening, taking a ‘Sunday’ drive not necessarily on a Sunday – and then have a nice relaxing time afterwards as a part of that activity. Like after woodcutting in the forest, we have a nice long leisurely picnic on the quiet secluded mountainside and soak in some rays. Or after clamming, we walk on the beach, etc. After gardening we sit back on the patio with some blackberry wine and soak up some sun! A little bit of relaxation everyday! That’s how I like it!
Here on the rainy Oregon coast, the outside ‘nice’ days are limited, so we tend to take advantage of them and BE outside. On the rainy days I’ll sew or scrapbook, or read a good book.
My lazy days disappeared about 6 years ago when my oldest was born. I may get them back eventually when my kids are older. In the meantime, I am trying to enjoy our hectic, family filled weekends full of laughter and playing…I know they will be grown before I know it. This doesn’t mean that I don’t occasionally long for a lazy day all to myself though 🙂
One of the benefits of living in Austria is that every Sunday is like that. All shops are closed, and one is pretty much forced to relax.
And relax we do! The atmosphere in town is wonderful, barely any cars on the streets and lots of people going for walks or picknicking in the park.
Heaven!