The Art of Dawdeling

I dawdled this afternoon.  Lucked into a half a day off work in exchange for doing a software test in the middle of the night a few weeks ago.  Strangely, I was able to set aside all of the "have to's" and "ought to's" and "really should's".  Oh sure, there were many aspects of housework I could have accomplished, my front door could have used a good coat of paint (cancel that; it rained in the late afternoon), I am way behind in the reading my Spiritual Director wants me to do and could have used the time to catch up. But no, I dawdled.  I had a leisurely lunch at my favorite kebab place, strolled through Harris Teeter and suddenly realized I could get everything I was looking for cheaper at Target, dropped by Target and found out I was right and checked out their electronics while I was there (just browsing, can't afford to buy anything...its a bit daunting anyway), worked out at the Y and treated myself to the steam room followed by a luxurious warm shower, headed home and attempted to establish a better working relationship with the new computer hard drive.  It still won't let me conveniently get to my favorites,  it multipled my moon phase gadget on my home page by 5 and wouldn't let me delete it until I showed the proper respect.  However, in fairness, the rip of my favorite CD's in media player went smoothly--I was upset that some of them are missing but that wasn't the computer's fault--and we had a major relational breakthrough when the VPN installation went more easily than I could ever have dreamed of.  Much easier, actually, than with the old hard drive. 
But back to dawdleing.  There's a phenonenon called "flow", when you are so absorbed into something that time and distractions drop away, and you drift into this glorious nirvana.  Atheletes and artists experience it, I sometimes experience it when I am at work, and get into a rhythm of working on case after case without stopping (definitiely not when I'm watching the phones!).  Dawdleing today was something like that.  I felt no guilt about not having an agenda, and not getting anything accomplished.  I'm not sure I looked at the time between noon and about 5 PM.  I just did stuff as I wanted to and lived into the moment.
The best thing about my afternoon of dawdleing is that I feel refreshed and rejuvenated.  It truly is an art, and like all art, it gets easier with practice.  Maybe dawdleing can be a form of Sabbath time, of the rest that God has commanded us to take.  Sabbath doesn't have to be a particular day of the week, it really is a state of mind.  Maybe it helps establish those margin things we learned about during Lent.
I hope that I can better live into the art of dawdleing.  This afternoon was an excellent start. 

Welcome back!

I have been away from blogging for almost two months now. This wasn't intentional--I had plenty to say, especially during Lent and Holy Week. But there were computer difficulties. I thought they would be over by now, but they aren't. Meanwhile, I've discovered I can blog on my iPhone, which I could have been doing all along. things don't happen the way you plan them. I am disappointed yes, but there must be something to be learned from this.  So I'll just say welcome back, it's great to have the use of my blog again. Until next time...