Be the grasshopper

This past weekend I did nothing. Well, that’s not true. I went to breakfast with friends, sat by the pool, went for yummy Thai and sushi, barbecued in the backyard with more friends, read a book by the pool, and enjoyed a bloody mary (or two). Really, for two days I just relaxed. This is very unlike me. I am always cleaning or doing laundry or other tasks which may or may not be urgent but seem urgent in my head. But for some reason this weekend, I had no desire to DO anything except enjoy myself. I am amazed at how awesome this was! I truly had forgotten what doing nothing felt like.
I think that I am going make a point of doing nothing every once in awhile. Mainly because it made me stop and realize how lucky I am. I mean, if my biggest freak-out of the weekend is that my kitchen floor didn’t get cleaned this week, then it’s possible that I’m living life a little out of perspective. I’m not saying I’m going to live in filth from now on. I’m just saying that if some crumbs sit on the floor an extra 5 days, it might not be the end of the world. I know you are thinking that I couldn’t possibly get that upset about stuff like that, but I do!! And it’s asinine!
So as the weekend is coming to an end, I tell my husband about how amazing it was to just do nothing and not feel guilty about it. He tells me something about a fable with an ant and a grasshopper. He says that he can’t really remember it, but he thinks that the ant spent all this time working and the grasshopper just enjoys life. Then the ant dies and never gets to enjoy all the work he did in his life. I tell him that I think this is a great message for me.
…..well……
I look up the fable and it turns out that the fable is really about the ant working his ass off in the warm months collecting food and what not for the winter and the grasshopper loafs around singing in the warm months and then DIES because he didn’t do jack-crap to prepare for the winter. Well, hell. I better go clean my floor!

Ran clean.

As you all know by now if you’ve read my blog regularly (as regularly as possible considering the absence of posts to read), I am a gym rat. I love a treadmill. I love it because there is ice cold water in my little cup holder, my iphone can sit easily on a handy little tray in front of me where crappy running songs can be easily skipped (i.e. Shirley Horn….sings the slowest songs ever….lovely but not what you’re looking for to pass the time quickly), and most importantly air conditioning. I am a creature of comfort and I make no apologies for it. Well, today I ran in my neighborhood. I ran outside for a long time and it was perfect.
I ran up and down streets and cul-de-sacs where lots of other people were running, walking dogs, walking with friends and chatting. The wind was blowing just enough to keep me cool but not enough to make it feel like I had a train tied around my waist trailing behind me. Every step was like it was releasing some sort of poison from my brain. I’ve been stressed about a major change happening at work and all of it just went away. I smelled the trees and the yards being watered. I talked to old dudes as I ran by them while they raked their yards. I ran through some sprinklers that were watering the asphalt. I thought about nothing except what was happening AT THAT MOMENT. Wow, that is a bold freaking statement for me. As I wrote that sentence that came out so easily just now, I realize how very unusual that is for me. I didn’t even worry about how far I was running. I ran until I was tired and until it was almost dark. I ran until I felt clean in my heart and in my brain.