Skip to main content

Day of Rest - Maya Angelou - Time to get off the Merry-Go-Round

Every person needs to take one day away.  A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future.  Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence.  Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.  Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us. 

Maya Angelou from Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now



Today is my one day off from work.  It has been so crazy there that I didn't do my normal practice and plan something to do on my "weekend," something to look forward to doing.  A reward is missing. 

So I am puttering around the house.  Maybe make dinner - no, I'd need to go shopping.  Maybe start a new project - no, not enough energy.  Oh crap:  I need to iron.  Okay - at least that is productive.  I haven't made an entry on the blog - EUREKA, I can blog.

I look up quotes about Resting.  Yeah, lots of quotes about "if you take care of the little things, the REST will take care of itself."  CRUD! More reminders about all the stuff I have to do.  And the mind starts racing.

Then I find this quote.  I haven't picked a second quote from a person yet but I this one is telling me that I am okay to think I can just rest.  I need to rest.  It allows me to justify my rest.  Brillant Maya.  So today I am resting.  And because the world just doesn't stop on one's day of rest, iron and a load of laundry because the world might survive without me but it won't survive with me in wrinkled shirts.
  


Gratitudes:  Google Podcast, frozen food for breakfast, comfortable beds.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Don't trust a skinny cook - Vinne Vrotny - Teacher Hypocrisy

Adults want comfort, but expect students to go into [the] discomfort zone.  Are we hypocrites?  from Vinnie Vrotny - Blog post    Multi-faceted Refractions I live with the thought that I am a hypocrite.  I am a teacher almost every day I implore, cajole, push, and pull students to learn more about the immediate subject and themselves.  And yet I feel guilty when I don't do the same thing. To find today's quote, I Googled "quotes teacher hypocrisy" and got no love.  I got quotes from Don King, Malcom X, Alan Dershowitz (black pot) and others.  But no listed, no famous quotes about teachers and hypocrisy.   Then I Googled "teacher hypocrisy" and oh boy, were there hits!.   Grass roots education ;  Condor Voice ; I, Hypocrite Teache r; and today's quote were just a start.   I realized that I am not alone.   I must admit I also hate lazy teachers.  They are robbing students' time.  Teaching is a hard job, both emotionally and phy

Anger and Work - Toni Morrison - Tired of being angry

I get angry at things, then go on and work. from: Toni Morrison Author and Teacher Disclosure:  I know little about Toni Morrison.  Yes, I should read her writings.  But I have my own writings to get out of my head. I found this quote because I have become tired of being angry.  Maybe I should just scream myself into a coma, but I think I would still wake up anger.  Screw the Serenity Prayer.  Stuff admonitions of how anger is caused by fear.  Stifle thoughts of turning the other cheek.  Suffocate ideas of rising above.  Smother the idea that this is not productive.   But then, a sliver of sanity and the simplicity of Morrison's quote.  As I have written before, I like to find the origin of quotes I use, and this one I found (unless this is photoshopped ) So, my two options are to keep my hand in the fire or to move into action.  Since I am writing this, I have chosen movement.   This entry can be considered the equivalent of picking myself up and brushing myself off.

Constant Growth - Jack Kornfield - Shedding Old Skin

Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again. from:   Buddha’s Little Instruction Book I got this one from Good Reads website: And again I doubled search the source and found out that even though it is attributed to Gautama Buddha, it is really from Jack Kornfield.  Hats off to  Fake Buddha Quotes  “I Can't Believe It's Not Buddha!" website. I was pulled to this quote because what I am trying to do is start a new phase in my life.  I have done this before, as we all have.  Sometimes with more success than others.  But when I am getting discouraged, I think "How many rabbits can I pull out of my hat." The past for me, at this point, is to get rid of bad habits and substitute in better ones.  Unlike the snake, which has only one skin to shed, we have many "skins."  Laziness, Ennui, Memories, Weight, Sedentary days and nights, Wasting time, TV, Facebook, Instagram, Video games, Youtube, "What if's"