Trained for Holiday

You know that wonderful feeling of space and freedom when you're finally done with schooling, your time and your schedule is your own? Been feeling that off and on of late.

Today is iconic for that. Cal and I slept in and got up lazily. He announced that as his assistant and his office was "off" for July 4, he wanted to do something different with the morning (we'd do necessary work this afternoon). So I made us a brunch of homemade whole wheat, whole wheat berry bread spread with peanut butter and topped with cheddar cheese for entree and chocolate chips for dessert and broiled until both toppings melted. Finished off the Bloody Mary mix for him and added a shot from the new bottle of Cointreau Noir to my rare and "holiday" (well, I needed an excuse to break my fast) cafe con leche. And we watched State of the Union with Tracy and Hepburn. Good movie except for lousy understanding of economic law. Then Cal helped me Sunday-company-clean the downstairs of the house. Hugged AJ on his way to work out and had a quick but lovely conversation. Just said goodbye to Isaac who is off to seek his fortune, and now I'm about to shop groceries for the weekend. This afternoon I'll organize all the clothes from the closet that I threw on my bed this morning.

As I brushed my now messy hair into a ponytail, I found myself delighting in the feeling mentioned above. Proclaimed this spring how last fall I'd prayed that I would do as much painting this year as I traveled last year. Well, I think I meant that I would stay home and NOT travel so much. But by the time I was talking about it, I'd already traveled as much in a few months as all of last year. But now, two weeks before another trip, I've painted more this year than maybe everything else in the last twenty years. And recognizing the value the last twenty years of SEEING has done me even though I could not paint what with managing a family. And learning how much fun it is to be alone with Cal.

Today's heterodoxical schedule (and thanks to Kilby's encouraging essay which I keep reviewing) has got me rejoicing that I'm done with "school", and free to set my own goals, my own productive schedules, my own satisfying times of rest and play and service and painting. So here's encouragement to my daughters who are in the beginning stages of childrearing. Plod on. We have eternity to play. Work is play.