Thursdays

In The Unselected Journals of Emma Lyon by Beth Brower, one of the main characters (Islington) has his Thursdays.

Thursdays are a day when he doesn’t commit to doing things he doesn’t want to do. A day when he has his friends over, and there is no agenda other than to read good books, eat good food, and make the occasional comment, but only if you want to. I think that is lovely.

What would you do on a Thursday?

I've tried for years to have my own version of Thursdays, but always on the wrong day. I thought that Saturday was a rest day at first, but it persistently seemed to fill up with errands, practices, games, and chores.

Then I thought: surely Sunday must be a rest day; it is, after all, called a day of rest.

False advertisement.

I do get an occasional nap, but the rest of the day seems to be jam-packed with family and worship time. It is all very good, but it is not terribly relaxing.

So, I channelled my inner Islington and chose a day that would be relaxing and restorative, a day when I would only let in the activities and expectations I chose.

It just happened to be a Thursday.

I stayed in my pajamas until shamefully late in the day. Drank a relaxing cup of cocoa while planning my next projects, took a bike ride, just because I wanted to, and made an unassuming and very easy meal. It was lovely.

At the end of the day, I felt myself take a restorative breath. The tasks and expectations were still there, but I felt ready to face them.

Of course, my Thursday was different than Islington's. He is a duke, and, alas, I am not. I still had to make some food and do some cleaning, but I let go of the endless to-do's and let myself just be enough, and that--that was lovely.