...how much of your life you will spend occupied in 'busy nothings'. I can guarantee that there is precious little of my day spent staring off into space and I am usually so exhausted by the end of it that it's all I can do to pull the covers back and climb into bed. Yet I am always forced to ask myself, as unconsciousness lingers somewhere very near by, "What have I really done today?" And the answer? Unfortunately it ends up going something along the lines of, "The same things you will do again tomorrow." Thus the 'busy nothings'; all those endless, time consuming, must-get-done tasks that keep coming around and around and around. Dishes. Laundry. Teeth brushing. Diaper changing. Do any of us ever realize how much of our life is devoted to these things? Probably not unless we sit down and intentionally take stock. I dare you to do it sometime; to total up the amount of hours you invest every year in, say, getting dressed and getting undressed or letting the dog out or wiping toothpaste splatter off the bathroom faucet. It really is quite scandalous when you work it all out into bare facts and figures. So then why I am always in such an urgent hurry to get these things done? Why do I feel guilty when I miss one evening flossing session or let the laundry pile up or head to bed without having emptied the sink drain? Inevitably there is another opportunity to do each of these things waiting just around the corner. In fact, I will most likely spend the rest of my life doing these things. So why can't a mini-lapse from this 'to do list' of mine feel less like irresponsibility and more like a reprieve ? Why can't I embrace a chance to pretend, for one small moment in time, that I can escape the mundane assault of my every day routine? Honestly I don't know. But in an effort to save my sanity I think I'm going to give myself permission to slack off now and then. Nothing crazy, mind you. I'm much too "type A" to let anything slide for very long. But, well, the fact of the matter is if I'm to end every day a virtual zombie facing a virtual repeat of today's itinerary tomorrow I might as well shake things up a bit. And then, every once in awhile, as I close my eyes and ask myself the fateful question "What did I really do today?" I can smile, with both drowsy smugness and satisfaction and answer "Not everything I was supposed to."