Monday, March 9, 2009

thoughts on free time

Rain and snow today. I've spent the entire day in the apartment, other than 5 seconds outside when I put "An Inconvenient Truth" on the lip of the mailbox in order to get my next Netflix movie ASAP. From where I'm resting deep in the couch, I can see fine snowflakes driven horizontally down Upton Street, and can hear them melting into rain in the drainpipes outside.

Today is Elliott's birthday, and I miss him. Haiti gets to enjoy him today instead, which I have reconciled myself to being the next step of life for us.

In his absence, I have found a wonderful opening up of time. The truth is that these are probably the days of my life in which I have the most time; no anticipated future for me will offer as many free hours in between working, as many quiet afternoons resting up for night shifts, as many evenings with no desire to go out and a whole apartment and libraries full of books.

My response has been to try to maximize this time, even in the last week. So thus I've been reading (Mountains Beyond Mountains is done, The Omnivore's Dilemma is in progress), watching films (An Inconvenient Truth and Super Size Me just today... blame that one on being home-bound!), knitting (gifts for Sarah, Kate, and Aileen are done; I'm hard at work on another afghan), catching up with family and friends (meals in and out, although I'd love to aim for more meals in and times of fellowship in our home, if I can), journaling, and finally getting started on writing that article with my thesis advisor from UVA. It's encouraging to see good things done with free time.

In the midst of all this there has certainly been more time to think, and I hope that will be the fodder for upcoming blog posts. Perhaps some on the Beatitudes, nursing, the environment, and food are upcoming.

But for just now, I'm going to spend time with my roommate. Peace out, Mac.

1 comment:

  1. Just so you don't begin thinking that nobody is checking in on this little blogging experiment of yours, here I am! Thanks for remembering my birthday, and wow, you really have been quite productive in my absence! Now get going on those future posts...

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