A Lesson in Being

From A Diary of Little Things and Curiosities:

one of my best friends--who was also my roommate throughout college--makes sure to take a bath every day... yes, without exception. every. single. day. 

for a long time, this absolutely baffled me. see, i was raised to live by the clock (always set five minutes fast, so as to never, ever be late) and i just couldn't understand it... didn't she have laundry and work and errands to do? didn't she feel guilty wasting that block of time? and how--how?--on top of this time-wasting bath habit could she also justify taking naps?!

well, she called me tonight--from the bath, of course--and it finally clicked. finally.

because yes--yes she has laundry and work and errands to do. she has plenty of things she could be filling her time with--but she chooses to put herself on the top of that list. each and every day, my best friend allows herself that little space of time to just be. 

and i've decided that i'm going to work on this--on this "stepping-outside-the-day-to-just-be" thing. it's important, i think, to sit in silence, to be your own company. and i used to claim that writing did that for me, but even writing requires a certain degree of alertness, a certain degree of worry.

so for the rest of the month, i'm going to take a note from her and become the sort of girl who takes baths. the sort of girl who sits still, who lets the worries slip to the side for a while as she steals a few moments for herself. 

i'm curious: do you have a daily escape habit? what is it?

{photo: molly merrick}