Slivers of spring break (or: Moms need a spring break, too)

This week I have really needed to get some things done.  But the whiny eternal student in me complained "but it's my spring breaaaaaaak!"  So I caved a little and let the squeaky wheel get a little grease in the form of some tiny slivers of spring breakness.

On Monday I went back to bed after the kids left for school.  I figured that I needed it, with the time change and all.  And plus?  It's my spring break!  Afterwards, I got all responsible and checked items off my list. 

spring break sliver: 1 hour

Another day,  after a semi-productive morning on the computer, I watched Under the Greenwood Tree on dvd in the early afternoon before the kids came home. {Loved it.}  Plus.  I met Ellen for pizza--a twofer day!

spring break sliver: 1.5 hours + 3 hours

Yesterday I read for fun in the middle of the day, a wonderfully lovely Rosamund Pilcher novel.  In the bathtub.  I always think of my mom when I read in the bathtub, since most of her novels are water stained at the bottom few centimeters from their trips to the bath.  Any small way I can be a teeny bit more like my mom is a good thing.  I embraced it.

spring break sliver: 30 minutes

You get the idea.  Somehow I found ways to be a little indulgent because the calendar said it was my spring break.  Those six little hours (thus far) have made a huge difference in my outlook!  Maybe I should declare every week spring break from here on out.

* * * 

Which got me thinking.

The educational system figured out long ago that there was great value in taking a week off, midway through the semester, to clear the brain and recharge the dedication + motivation for learning.

I think the same reasoning (but more so) applies to moms, stay-at-home or not, with kids of any age.  What job is more demanding, 24/7? So why not take a break to clear your brain and recharge your dedication + motivation?

For most women I know, the biggest barrier to taking a break is simply giving yourself permission to do it.  So here I am, begging you & giving you permission----->

Take a spring break!!!

I'm not talking about ditching the family and going off to Acapulco to star in a Momz Gone Wild video.  I'm talking small slivers where you give yourself permission to treat yourself.  Pick a week (NOT your kids' spring break, when you are engineering their week of fun) and do it. Write it on your calendar.  

Plan some fun. 

Please.  

Small slivers of spring breakness. 

(Or big ones.)

Plus

If you leave your address here in the comments (or email it to me) telling me when you are taking your mom spring break, I will send you your choice: a spring break postcard from my little corner of the world or a spring break permission note to prove to your family that you are indeed on spring break.

picture via flickr

Minding the gap

20 years ago this month, I boarded a plane and headed to London to live for six months.  

{Can it really be so long ago?} 

It was an exhilarating, crucial time for me.  I had longed to have an adventure for as long as I could remember--to see the world and experience it firsthand.  And, lucky for me, the world did not disappoint. It was there that I became clearer on my priorities & beliefs; my life was still simple {and self-centered} enough that I felt like I could live up to all my expectations. In many ways, I was probably my best version of myself while I was there--I feel like I've been trying ever since to return to the habits I developed and the qualities I embraced while I was there, to recapture the openness, curiosity, positivity and wide-eyed, dazzled feelings I experienced.

And, boy, did I have some experiences! Unfortunately, over my many moves I have lost my journal from that time {I know, sad, yes?I'm still hunting...} but I'm going to tell a few of the stories here over the next few months to both commemorate the anniversary of my journey and to document it for later...to mind the gap between then and now.

Like the time I got lost in Rome and found myself opening a door and emerging smack in the middle of a horse race track...during a race. 

Or when I took a plane to Greece with a couple of friends and cruised the Greek isles on practically pennies and somehow stupidly managed to endanger the lives of over a hundred people.

Or how I learned the hard way not to make eye contact with certain groups of Roman (or Greek, for that matter...) men.

Or how being on the other side of the world helped me realize G was the man for me.

Or just how I came to understand who I really was and who I wanted to be.

Coming soon...

Bless him, bless us

..Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

~Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, at the Lincoln Memorial Inaugural Concert 1/18/09
(thanks to my brother who sent this along via my mom)

AMEN.

Gather

Did you watch the Golden Globes on Sunday night?  I did, even though it interrupted my important schedule of worrying and fretting about my first teaching session the next morning. 

(Truly.  Earlier in the evening we were supposed to go somewhere and I told G, "I can't go!  I'm teaching tomorrow!"  And he said "But aren't you all ready?  Aren't you done preparing?" And I said, "Yes but I have to stay home so I can worry about it.  I've got some serious stewing to do that requires my complete attention."  So silly.)

Back to the Golden Globes.  Kate Winslet (love her!) won her first and her second GG awards in one night and in her second speech she was flummoxed and aflutter and verklempt and said to herself several times:

Gather.

What a great word.  It's my new pocket-sized personal pep talk. And I needed it right then.  Gather, Annie.

  

Speaking of gather, I heard a great This I Believe broadcast the other day when I was shuttling kids around.  It was by a man who lives in Paris who invites as many people as can fit in his house for dinner for a feast every Sunday night.  The first 50-60 people who call get a place--strangers, friends, artists, truck drivers, writers, cartoonists, retirees, editors.  There's even a link on the site so you can reserve a place at his table.  He says "I believe in introducing people to people...I believe we should know each other." How cool is that? I'm so inspired by his Sunday salons...I might have to try something like that.  

Gather.  Yes I will: gather my wits, my thoughts.  Gather people.  

(And now the word gather looks and sounds very strange to me.  Huh.  Weird.)

Bruegel Christmas

See that woman in the middle?
The one alone
With the white hat and broom
Head down, sweeping
Or digging, maybe.
That has been me.
Focused on the depth of snow in front of me
And my need to dig out.

Oblivious
To the boisterous gathering over there
And to the snow-stuck wagon behind me,
Where my broom could be put to better use.
Unaware of the simple miracle
of a young woman on a horse,
almost hidden by winter clothing
and seeking a place,
The holy significance lost in favor of
Bristles and snow.

I'm putting down the broom

And looking up.

Join me?

____

The last final is handed in and the big paper was submitted this morning.  I feel so grateful for the lightened weight from my shoulders! I'm ready for a simple, enjoy-the-moments Christmas week with the family, aided by the coming snowstorm and cancelled events.

 ____

{Painting: Bruegel's The Census at Bethlehem.  Click here for last year's Rossetti Christmas.}