what a week.  zoicks.  trying to find something uplifting and artistic to write about, and i am reading this really great book, called, “traveling light”.  it uses psalm 23 as a reminder of all the ways we can find peace in our lives.

i just read a section on the “sabbath”, and how important it is to take one day off a week.  although i have a big rehearsal at noon today, i still am holding on tight to the feeling that, yes, this is a day off for me.  what’s a little rehearsal in lawrence with my friends?  sounds more fun than anything.  just forget that pesky little detail of the difficult music i have to sing for those 3 hours.  and the fact that i left the music in my office at school, which could potentially mean that i have to drive all the way to liberty, then to lawrence.  and then i’ll need to get groceries.

it’s very hard to view this day as a day off.  but i must.  it’s the most “day off” looking day i’ll have in a while.  i need to use it.

i like all the ideas of a day off, a sabbath.  i like the idea of sitting on my chaise (where i am right now) in my robe, drinking coffee, reading a good book.  prayer and meditation somewhere in my day.  a little yoga to get the body aligned?  a day off makes me immediately want to practice, too.  a good type of practicing, where you just get to know your voice, or maybe even pick up the violin instead.  there’s a banana bread in the oven, and maybe a load of laundry in the dryer too.

and then i look back at all that, and i didn’t really have a day off if i do all that.  someone has to MAKE the coffee and the banana bread.  someone has to clean it all up.  laundry?  that’s work.  practice?  sheesh, what am i talking about?  it should just be sitting on my chaise, doing a little yoga, and the prayer/meditation thing.  that’s it!

and that’s why we have TWO days in a weekend.  one day, you get all of the above accomplished and it feels. so. good.  and the next day, you try to devote your whole day to a peaceful, meditative, slow-moving fog.  even if you did that for an hour, you would feel incredibly revitalized.  if you did it a whole day, i don’t know what would happen.

but, i have never done that.  i have had one hour of that, and it’s true ~ it is pure serenity.  and then i jump up and, feeling like i’ve literally been healed from all my burdens after that hour, i start conquering the world.

today, no matter how much work i end up doing, i’m going to do it slowly, and in a meditative fog.  stoned with peace.  ha ha ha.