The Bathrobe

Justin and I are not highly motivated types. We talk about things a loooooong time before we ever get around to doing anything.

I sometimes get annoyed by us and I'm sure others get annoyed a lot. But as I get older and wiser (and older....and older...) I'm beginning to see value in it; to embrace it. Not ALL of it - for instance being late is hardly a valuable habit - but relaxing together, wasting time together can be a good thing.

I feel we're surrounded by a mentality that often preaches, "Busyness makes you valuable!"

Yeeaaaahh.....I don't think so. It makes you tired and grouchy.

A friend of mine said that at a certain point in their evening, anything that hasn't been accomplished WON'T be accomplished because they make relaxing together a priority.

In the first 3 1/2 months of our new family of 4, our evenings were largely chaos. Many were spent endlessly bouncing a crying Marlowe and training a grouchy Evanie and calming a weeping mommy. (poor Justin) There were virtually no moments of time to waste together as a couple. And you know what we found? We fought. We constantly misunderstood each other. We frequently went to bed grouchy and too tired to work it out and I began to realize that "wasting time" together is actually a high priority.

Today I read this excerpt from The Book of Idle Pleasures (thanks, Tianna!):

The Bathrobe

"There is no more apt uniform of sloth than the bathrobe. Merely owning one is a sign of hope. A signal of slovenly intent. Bathrobes accompany the state of doing nothing, but what are you actually doing when you're doing nothing? Thinking, that's what you're doing. Society fears the population with time to think. Populations like that have been known to change things. This is why the bathrobe is the true uniform of revolution. In some far distant point in the future, women and men will marvel at the day the seats of global power were finally overwhelmed - by an army of people in bathrobes."

I want to personally give each of you permission to waste time today. Don your bathrobe, put your gnarly, calloused heels up on the coffee table, and twiddle your thumbs.

And this week?

Say "no" to one thing.

Drop one (maybe a tiny one) ball.

Take one nap.

We'll be better for it.