Wearing: A Twinkling Paisley

Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you.

--Annie Dillard

I'm not a still person. It's a challenge for me to slow down--to turn off the music and listen to nothing but my thoughts. I have a hard time taking a thirty minute walk around the block without my cell phone. It's an effort to enjoy the silence....to go outside, get comfortable on the ground and just watch the sky go by.

With three children around, I'm surrounded by constant motion, unending enthusiasm for action. Occasionally, when I force myself to be still, I can better appreciate the movement. I take the time to look through my old photo albums, remembering where I've been and what I've done there or pull out my favorite hardback and pour through it again, getting reacquainted with favorite characters like they were old friends.

(BR dress worn as shirt, Anthro In a Twinkling dress, LOFT belt, Anthropologie Renssalaer pumps)

More often than not, I find ways to de-stress that include my children. We'll enjoy a breakfast of cereal by candlelight or rustle the pages of a good book before bedtime or take bike rides in the warm, afternoon sun or buy a box of chocolates and eat all our favorite ones first.

Whether resting or at play, I want to be dedicated to these moments which will float away all too quickly. I never want to be the girl who spends her life feeling that real life is about to begin. D'Souza said,

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin--real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

So no, I'm not a still person. It's a challenge for me to slow down...to turn off the music and listen to nothing but my thoughts. But when I do, what I find inside is always the same. I want to live each day like it is the best day ever.

PS. What's your favorite "do nothing" past-time?