The art of doing nothing

I reckon a happy life is built up of a pile of little things that make you happy, rather than a series of huge things. That’s going to be my experiment for this week. Little snippets of happiness wherever I can find them.

Today was a mostly lazy day. I woke up earlier than I’d planned on which was initially annoying but then I figured it gives me more time to do things I want to do.

There’s definite pleasure in easing into your day with a good cup of coffee on the sofa sitting under the skylights on a sunny morning. Granted it was 0°C outside but it was a bright blue sunny day.

I skyped with my ‘husband’ for 2 hours while he was cooking up a storm for dinner guests 6 time zones away, with him imparting culinary knowledge along the way. He’s the only person I know who gets home from work at 8pm then ‘quickly roasts a chicken’ for dinner on a week night as a regular thing. #lunatic. Today he was making curry with all the accompaniments. It looked GOOD!

He’s going to teach me how to spatchcock a chicken over Skype one weekend. If someone can quickly roast a chicken for dinner, then I need to know how to do that! He definitely doesn’t save fancy meals for weekends only. He’s a regular Jamie Oliver, only better looking and infinitely more interesting.

He gave me his mom’s recipe for pea and ham soup so I made that for lunch. OMG delish! I’ve never made it from scratch before and I bought the goodies to make it so it was good having adult supervision. Score 1 for cooking something new and trying a new recipe (even if it wasn’t from my crazy collection of recipe books!)

The makings of yumminess!
The makings of yumminess!
The end result - get in muh belly!
The end result – get in muh belly!

The afternoon was spent under my blankie reading my Kindle, incense burning on the table and a glass of good Scotch. I also wiped down all of my orchid leaves with a damp cloth which I haven’t done, ever. They’re all sparkly and fresh now.

Today’s gratitude is for skylights on a sunny day, comfort food from my childhood, a great Scotch, a crazy friend to laugh with and having absolutely nothing urgent that needed taking care of. I walked a whole 0.56 miles today according to my Fitbit and I’m ok with that.

I’m planning to get outside tomorrow for my first decent walk since the surgery to see how far I can go without needing a nap. It’s probably only going to be laps around my apartment complex but it’s a start for now. Baby steps.

Somehow things got done without any conscious plan to do so and no list of things to tick off. Life had its own effortless rhythm. Here’s to many more days just like today.

 

Author: MacScottie

I'm a South African-born American who dabbles in writing, photography and cookery. I lived in England for 6 years before moving to America. My first trip to Scotland was in 2003 and it was love at first sight. 4 trips later & I'm now on a quest to find a way back to my soul-home in Scotland. I've picked up favourite foods in each place I've lived so I'm a product of all the places I've been. A sprinkling of this, a dash of that and in an emergency, a generous splash of Scotch!

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