Thursday, May 29, 2014

Splurge





Perhaps a blend of the words Splash and Surge? Or so Merriam Webster reports.


An indulgence -- that is how I will define "Splurge" for today.


This week I decided I needed to splurge on time. Time has been used fast and furiously with work demands, seeking out friends, caring for loved ones, worries of the world and household chores now that Winter has packed her bags and Spring is settling in around the homestead!  So, I took Thursday morning off from everything. No TV. No Radio. No chores. Coffee, me, an open window to hear the birds and feel the cool breezes and my cat.


It was "love-r-ly" to say the least.


Three hours into my morning of quiet my brain began to hum about decadence versus indulgence. See? That is how my brain works things out...a bit of my own string theory of how the world, or my view of it, works. 


Decadence is actually not a good thing -- immoral behavior, slippery slope thinking. But indulgence? Quick dips into and back out of the stuff of life that makes us sing, gives flight to imagination, eases the tension between our shoulder blades, gives our pleasure buds just the right amount of ecstasy to remind us once again we are alive but not so much we fall into, well, decadence!


We splurge on "things" in life (a new book, a new music download, an old coffee cup at a flea market, a gelato with a friend) in ways to indulge our senses.


So, today I planned the morning off from work in order to indulge myself. I began with a slow stretch this morning, waking before the alarm and, after throwing a few kibbles into her bowl to appease her ever present hunger, the cat and I curled up in the bed and listened to the morning arrive. The birds, the leaves in the early morning breeze...straining to hear the crack of dawn as we enjoyed the coolness of the morning air seeping through the window.


Finally, up to make coffee.. but this morning, I wore my comfy slippers and not my house shoes. Squishing out to the kitchen, I made a pot of my favorite brand of coffee and reached high up for the most delicate coffee cup I own...so delicate that when I hold it in front of the kitchen window the sun transforms the stark white areas to that blue just at the edge of the day - twilight blue.


The warmth of the coffee cup seeps into my aching left hand (due to nerve damage as a result of a gopher hole accident almost 10 years ago).


I run my nicely warmed up hands through my newly shorn mop of hair, briefly noting I have hair to tussle, then make my way to the front porch. Perched on the railing in my bathrobe and squishy slippers I breathed in the mix of smells from my coffee cup and the dew covered grass. A whiff of the lilacs that stubbornly push their way into life every spring comes from the corner of the house. Poor bushes...winter was not kind, but like most things with a strong core, the lilacs still bloomed. 


That was my morning. Pretty much summed up the three hours I indulged in the quietness of the day. Indulged my senses with the sights, the sounds, the tastes, the aromas and the feel of spring.


Time to move back onto the chaotic beltway of living: work, chores, errands, people, responsibilities.


I will do this again...this indulgence of a quiet weekday morning.


It felt good to dip into the stuff of life obscured by living.