This post started from a SummerBlogChallenge entry that begged to be expanded upon. I also wanted to provide content of value for some (hopefully!) new friends from the Blog Hop Til You Drop Friday!
To see the Summer Blog Challenge entry, visit here. One of my Life Tips (Secrets, Keys, Etc) was this – “Create mini-retreats/vacations within your day.” Before you read further, when I first wrote this tip, I thought, "I hope I don't get punched in the mouth for saying this.
Remember: Create mini-retreats/vacations within your day.
Yes, the stuff you call drudgery is capable of being transformed into revelry. Even grocery shopping. Even diaper changing.
Prepare for a whine-fest before I get to the point of my story.
My most hated “hafta do” every day is what I fondly refer to as “kidschlepping.”
I know, I have the soccer mom van and I have been raising children for more than twenty years now so you would think I would be over myself and accept the fact of driving kids to and fro.
If you only knew… when my daughters were 7 and 12 I gave them summer bus passes so they could take themselves to their Summer programming. It was awesome. They were independent and I was free to do my work as well.
See, when you work from home (I am a writer and teacher of teleclasses – at home) people don’t realize you actually have a drive to work, not a drive to drive kids hither and yon. Maybe some people do, but it isn’t me.
Today I was driving my son home from his Summer Programming. It was 5:30 pm. I had been awake for twelve hours. I needed to get home so I could teach a class at 6 and then run off to rehearsal which begins at 7:30.
I was feeling run down, my brain a foggy mess, and I looked at a median next to my Mom Van. It was a median where someone had planted flowers: in this case daisies. The intersection was in a questionable neighborhood. On one corner, a welfare hotel where prostitutes run their businesses. On another corner, a check cashing establishment, on another corner, a large equipment rental, on another corner, a dilapidated, long ago abandoned warehouse.
On the median, daisy like flowers… sunflower, daisy crosses. I know that isn’t the proper name but I knew as I gazed at them softly blowing in the breeze, I stopped feeling crappy and overscheduled.
I felt myself driving in peace along the expansive South Dakota prairie. I felt myself enjoying my children. I felt myself adventuring through life.
Instantly I went from grouchy to not grouchy at all.
I turned the span of a red light into a mini-retreat.
What mini-retreat will you surprise yourself with today?
Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot
© 2012 by Julie Jordan Scott
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She leads Writing Camp with JJS & this Summer will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.
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