"ll think about that tomorrow."

The heat continues - 96, 97, 95, etc. We did get a good rain late yesterday so everything looks greener this morning. The humming birds are back. Been here a week or so now. I'll share a photo I took last year. Last night during our Pod Sisters monthly conference call a thought came to me that I'll share - a gift of a day - my suggestion to a friend who is overloaded. We all get that way - often of our own choosing. And the time comes when the best choice we can make is to give a day to ourself. I find myself doing that almost weekly. Sometimes more than one day. This gift of a day is spent mostly in silence meditating, reading, knitting, watching the turtles stick their heads up and the fish leap up and make a big splash on the Pond surface. Sometimes I cook something special. Sometimes I eat stuff from the freezer. I nap. Maybe even in the morning. I avoid accomplishing anything - that is doing. I put off paying bills or answering emails. I don't fill the bird feeders or water the plants or clean the commode. I try very hard to just be. I avoid "following the rules." I am a victim of a Protestant upbringing - "do your chores first and then you can play." On my gift-to-me days I play first. I admit, sometimes I do a chore first thing in the morning - just a little one - to kill that urge. And, occasionally I even find myself doing another chore later in the day - it truly is difficult to gift a day to myself. BUT, the payoff is tremendous, even with the backsliding. Right now I'm expressing gratitude that the hummingbird feeder is full. I cooked up more sugar-water yesterday but I won't need to refill the feeder till tomorrow. Later I might refill the other birdfeeders, but I'll try hard to avoid it. Maybe I'll fill one and not the rest. Recently I watched Gone with the Wind again and I'm reminded of Scarlet's often-used sentence: "I'll think about that tomorrow." I'm gonna remember that all day today!