Friday, March 12, 2010

I wrote earlier this week about being nervous without a long to-do list. I think it's the universe's way of getting me ready for retirement that I've got a short one again this weekend.

So I'm going to practice doing less. When I got home from work I'd planned to walk three miles - I wear a pedometer and strive for 10,000 steps a day. It was cold and windy during lunch so I walked only a mile, to the teriyaki take-out place. By the time I got home the wind had died down. It was about 40 degrees - chilly for Western Washington - and clear, and a three-mile walk at dusk would have taken a little less than an hour.

But instead, because I was tired from a hectic day at work, I decided to lie on the couch in my work clothes and talk to my husband Art about the economics class he attended today where the class discussed supply and demand and bailing out the banks versus lowering taxes. Then I fixed myself a bath and lay in the water reading the January/February 2009 issue of Sierra magazine, about green architecture and green renovation and small house design. I'm reading my magazines off the bottom of the basket, so being only 13 months behind is good.

Then I put on my comfy green pajamas and sat down to blog while Art fixed us soup for dinner. After dinner we'll watch a couple of episodes of Season 3 of The West Wing with our cat, Larisa, beside us, and go to bed, where I'll read aloud to Art until we're both sleepy.

The difference between this weekend and the last one is that I'm going to try hard not to put anything on a to-do list. I know I'm meeting a friend tomorrow for coffee, and buying a new pair of walking shoes because the soles on the old ones are worn smooth, and doing a few loads of laundry. But that's it, so far. I'm going to resist adding anything else to my list. Because, for this weekend, I'm going to try to do less. I may read more, but "Read 5 magazines out of the basket" is not going to be on any list - even if that's what I do.

I want to learn to do this - to relax and do nothing from time to time. For starters, I'll try it for the weekend.

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