Ahhh…yes. Saturday afternoon, The Randy Tobler Show went pretty well this morning, the chores are finished-thanks to the drizzle, I have no choice-and it’s time to spend the overcast afternoon contemplating my navel. Not really, but there is a need even for overachieving workaholics like me to stop and smell the snow melt. Truly, I have a hard time slowing down and not planning the next project, attacking some unfinished business from the last one, or re-engineering one that was supposed to be finished but could be improved. It’s like an addiction for some of us, that ‘goal’ thing. Always striving to open one more door, climb another rung, pack a few more facts into an already overloaded g-drive (that’s ‘g’ for gray matter, not Google). So Saturday afternoons that become diverted from the outdoor project rained out by early spring showers are blessings in disguise.
I am forced to RELAX. I’m cursed, because that’s tougher than running a couple of miles. No kidding!
Heliene faithfully admonishes me to schedule some down time, and this is an opportunity to appease that advice. I know she sees it helps balance me, but inside the sensitivity centers of my brain, something tells me I need to unwind to be a better husband and dad too. So today I commit to enjoy lunch….sitting down….with a beer….watching some golf….surrounded by the 3 dogs who set a great example of how to relax, and how to be flexible! How is it that I can’t touch my ankles, much less toes, yet Lucee the wonder dog can curl up like a roly-poly at a ripe age that in human terms is roughly equivalent? That’s one of life’s mysteries I’ll never understand, but it does illustrate the connection between fitness and flexibility. I start connecting the dots: Lucee is an athletic, cheetah-fast beauty of an English Pointer, an impressively graceful and agile assemblage of muscle and bone. Then I think of Heliene doing her yoga video the other day, and me embarrassing myself trying to emulate the moves for only 30 seconds.
So I lurch for the TV, thinking I must start that quest for flexibility. Uh-oh. See what almost happened? I almost digressed!
Having slain the instinct to stay busy, it’s off to the kitchen, where I heat up some amazing carnitas Heliene made yesterday. It’s like a Mexican version of pulled pork, and she makes such nice quantities that we’ll eat ‘em for lunch along with some homemade sauce, put a little bit with the eggs for breakfast, and have some amazingly healthy tacos with the zesty meat and some fresh pico de gallo later in the week. I threw in some broccoli from yesterday and put in all on a single tortilla purchased from a senor and senora in Ottumwa who are struggling with their new business. All they make is tortillas, but they are the real deal. Topped with a sprinkle of cheese and some guacamole, it’s a fiesta for lunch. Next, I’m putting in the ear buds and enjoying a mix of some great music. Ahhhhh….rainy springtime Saturdays. Nice! I’ll bet tomorrow I can clean the
basement, wax the car and start writing a book. Whoops, there I go again!
Hey, this is fun! Not struggling to stay on the treadmill of life every minute we’re conscious means deep breaths, less tension and back ache. I’ll have to remember how serene life can be if you seek a quiet place now and then. Heliene was right. She usually is. So how do YOU come in from the rain?