Sweet Potato Mornings

"And just as there are moments when simply to lie in bed and see the daylight pouring through your window and to hear the cheerful voice of an early postman down below and to realize that it was only a dream; it wasn't real, is so heavenly that it was very nearly worth having the nightmare in order to have the joy of waking, so they all felt when they came out of the dark."-VOTDT, C.S. Lewis

Although there are some tendencies for a career as an educator to leave you with feelings of exhaustion (as any profession, vocation, or thing we really throw our passion into does) I can't argue that having a 4 day weekend doesn't make for a bad gig.

This morning, November 10, 2011, hereby marks the commencement of said 4 day weekend. I started it off, and am still in, (with it now being 12:06, possessing the same high school soccer shorts, messy hair, and tank top as I had when this all began at the bright hour of 8am) alternating between the activities of reading, writing, eating, and sleeping in various cyclical patterns incorporating all 4 variables (with room for daydreaming). 

I've been reading (and re-reading) a lot of David Foster Wallace this morning (as I just recently acquired two of his works, the first being a collection of essays entitled, A Supposedly Funny Thing I'll Never Do Again as well as a printed copy of a commencement speech he gave entitled, This is Water at my most recent Barnes & Noble adventure). And by reading, of course, I mean I have been inhaling with laughter and underlying jealousy the sentences and ideas he is able to not so delicately put together. All of which serve as irrefutable proof of his comic genius :O) (My nerdy run-on-paragraph ends here) I feel like it warrants mention that sweet potatoes are always a great accomplice to mornings like this; serving to nurture and care for all your caloric and nutritional needs.

All of that to say, it's a good morning. And alternating between DFW and C.S. Lewis always inspires you. This morning, as I entered into another adventure in Narnia, I came across two quotes describing a moment that the Dawn Treader had when it was coming out from a spot in the water that was incredibly dark and scary.

It reminded me; it's so easy to lose sight of the simple beauties in our day to day. When we're in the busy times it's even easier (as DFW would say) to forget to actively chose how we think, what we pay attention to, and how we construct meaning from experience. As I've read this morning, the insidious thing about all of these distractions and battles we face daily is that they are unconscious. But in all of the busy, in all of the expectations, and even in all of the very commendable goals we have for ourselves, sometimes I forget to do this-choose. 

Choose to notice things.

Choose to think different.

Choose to see the bigger picture.

Choose to enjoy.

And that's not easy task. Our present culture makes this incredibly difficult for us. It benefits from us not doing this. And the worst part is, I'm the minority. Not everyone gets 4 day weekends to relax, contemplate life, chill with sweet potatoes, and really think about some of this stuff. A lot of people work longer hours, have less time to think, and are under enormous amounts of responsibilities and stress. But we can choose to alternate our daily, at least in small ways.

Sometimes, after stressful weeks or project due dates, I feel like I'm the Dawn Treader coming out of a battle or that dark spot in the ocean. But, I also feel like her in the quote below,

"But the brightness of the ship herself astonished them: they had half expected to find that the darkness would cling to the white and the green and the gold in the form of some grime or scum"

Those times don't corrode our inner person.

Because, sure enough, there always comes a time when you emerge from that place-brighter.

Wiser. More careful. More trained.
Cheers to not dying the slow death of adulthood.

It's all nearly worth having in order to enjoy sweet potato mornings.

xoxo,

mp