Take a break from life in general!
Have you ever taken a break from people and from life?
This is literally what I have been doing these last few weeks. I have turned myself into a semi-hermit and just went out to buy bread and milk once a day or every second day. Just so that I don't lose touch with reality.
When the school closed on 4 December 2020 I went into total shutdown. I usually work very hard during the holiday to get everything ready for the next year, but for the first time in years, I decided not to.
I decided that I was going to just be lazy for once in my life and the only thing that really worked in my house was the television remote. At first, I felt guilty for not doing much but the feeling went away when I found something new to watch on Netflix. Let me tell you something I got my money's worth on my monthly subscription to Netflix! I didn't watch the news and I avoided reading crap on Social media, so I am so out of touch with everything. Not that I think that I missed much. Same old fights and politics and people are still stir crazy and raving mad!
One good thing was that I was also alone with my husband for the first time in years, so we got to spend some quality time during the evenings when he got home from work.
The most difficult thing was to cook for only two people. In previous years, we were nine people in the house over December but this year it just didn't work out for everyone to come over due to Covid and the beach restrictions.
If you are used to cooking for four or more every single day it is such a waste to cook only for two. I didn't even buy groceries this month because it seemed like a waste.
All in all, I rested.
My body rested and my mind rested. It did me the world of good and for the first time in many years, I really feel as if I rested.
There are some who complain of a man for doing nothing; there are some, still more mysterious and amazing, who complain of having nothing to do. When actually presented with some beautiful blank hours or days, they will grumble at their blankness. When given the gift of loneliness, which is gift of liberty, they will cast it away; they will destroy it deliberately with some dreadful game with cards or a little ball. I speak only for myself; I know it takes all sorts to make a world; but I cannot repress a shudder when I see them throwing away their hard-won holidays by doing something. For my own part, I never can get enough Nothing to do.
G. K. Chesterton, The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton, 1936
Sometimes it is just good for the soul to shut down and do as little as possible for as long as possible.
Do I see it as time wasted? No, I don't.
I got my sanity back for a little while and that is all that matters.
