And The Lesson Is 'Boring'

For those of you who have been somewhat keeping up with these emails you'll know that these past couple months (...years?) has been pretty busy.  Talking with friends stateside, it sounds like it was equally true in Americastan; I'd be willing to take the safe bet that, around the world, months which include major holidays tend to be busier than the rest.  Its a familiar phenomenon to feel the need for a break after the rubble is cleaned up from the holiday cheer bomb which exploded all over your previously normal and sane life.

I'll be the first to admit I bring it upon myself.  I like being busy and I'm really good at filling up my hours, days, and months with projects and activities (though I will also admit that walking takes up at least an hour of my day...better get used to this no-car lifestyle).  I like visiting friends and I like getting out and about in my community.  I like meeting with colleagues working towards larger projects than the day to day minutia of a 5th form English lesson.  But I also recognize that keeping up a state of constant work and 'productivity' is exhausting.  My body has been telling me this over the past few weeks, threatening me with illness and forcing itself to bed at 7:30.

And I finally listened.  This past weekend I did nothing; it was a national day of mourning on the 20th of January and I made it my business to have no business on Friday and Saturday.  It was magnificent-I read and listened to music.  I washed my bedsheets and cleared my email inbox.  I bought a new toothbrush and ignored grocery shopping.  For the first time in a very long, I had enough time of not doing anything to actually become bored and it was so nice.  Wandering aimlessly from my living room to the kitchen back to the living room again never felt so good.

There's a lesson for me in here.  I know that we all need to take some time off for ourselves to recharge, but I generally seek out people to recharge which means making plans.  What was so nice about this weekend was that it was unscheduled.  Its already on my calendar in early March to figure out when my next 'unscheduled' weekend will be.  I'm always going to be busy, so I'm going to assume in about 3 months I'm going to want, and need, another weekend of that fleeting flavor of boredom.

Next week we have our Mid Service Training.  I'm going to see some people I haven't seen since we were inaugurated as volunteers.  It will be a week of looking back and projecting forward, dental checkups and language exams.  And then I'll head to to the regions for our final teacher training under this current grant.  It will be a busy week of traveling and trainings, but after this weekend savoring the subtle joy of boredom I think I'm more ready than I've felt in a while.