a short reprieve

Not that I needed one, but today is another German holiday. No banks, no stores, and most important, no classes. *grins*

Of course, that gave me an excuse to have lots of fun this weekend (as though I don't anyway) and still have a day to catch up on the work I should have done over the weekend. It never feels like very much work, since I don't have papers due during the semester (although I still will be writing mine during the semester, but the pressure isn't on, really). I hope I don't actually put things off until the absolute last minute, because I want to do some traveling in the two weeks between the end of semester and my flight home. I'm in Europe, I want to see some more of it!

So, today will actually be a productive one, with yoga, recopying notes, reading assigned chapters, taking a walk, finishing up laundry and cooking what I've got in my pantry. Oh, and it's looking pretty again (yay!) so I will probably sunbathe a bit this afternoon. It has been a real treat, this more-northerly sunlight. I can lay out and not get burned. That would never happen at home.

Well, so much for that idea...

... of being productive. But it was a good day nonetheless.

After posting here, I made my bed, and immediately fell asleep in it, until about noon. I spent a lot of time this morning in thought and prayer, and I finished Everyday Grace. I have been marking places in the text (with little scraps of paper) at points that struck me as particularly profound or pertinent to my life. In the last couple of chapters, I think there is a bit of paper every two or three pages. In the last or next to last chapter, she actually tells my story. It is her own story, of course, but I related so completely to her experience that it may as well have been my story.

That took until 3 p.m. After having a late lunch, I finally sat down to some homework. That is still not done, but progress has been made. I went to see Kingdom of Heaven with Dory tonight (an interesting film, worth seeing, but probably not with your last $7.50).

So, now I'm home, and half-ready to go to bed, half-ready to stay up and work on my translation for Old French class tomorrow.

But none of that is really how my day was. It is what I did, but not how I was.

I was calm, and cheerful. I was grateful for my life as it is today, with every little snag, every miniscule delight. I felt restful, and deliberate. I felt confident that my life is exactly how t is supposed to be, and that I am exactly where I need to be, in order to become the person I am to become. I saw future possibilites without thinking them over-fanciful or deeming them childish; I looked at the past without condemning it or my part in it. I examined my life today, my feelings, my motives, my desires, and my fears, all without haste or reluctance. I know, with absolute certainty that I am being cared for, that I need not fret for the future, or dwell over the past.

Today is mine, without me ever having to take it. All I have to do is say "yes".