Okay, so that's a little optimistic. I'm counting my chickens before they're hatched. I'm jumping the gun. I'm lapsing into all those clichés that I warn my students about.
But, I am looking forward to summer and its restorative powers. I need a little time when there are no more papers to grade, no more lessons to plan, no more offices to hour. That last part didn't work, perhaps because "hour" just isn't a verb.
And, while it's true that simply doing nothing has its own restorative power, I don't want to do nothing the whole time. For the record, that's not an invitation to ask me to clean your house, sit your dog, or do any other task that you'd rather not, though I am a pushover, so do with that what you will.
To avoid falling into "The Great Time Suck of Summer 2013," I've started making a list of things I want to accomplish. Some are goals I'd like to achieve; others are things that I want to make a habit of doing. As for the second, I began thinking over which kinds of spiritual practices I'd like to work on making more habitual.
A confession: I'm terrible about reading my Bible. I mean, I don't do it nearly enough. Sometimes I (gasp!) don't want to. For real, people, I'm lousy at keeping up with Bible reading. So, I thought I'd make a goal of reading my Bible _________ number of times per week. I'm leaving that blank for now, but, as I read, I'll check it off so that I have a record.
A moment after I've schemed this out, something inside me recoils. This feels so forced, so inorganic, and I wonder if this plan is all wrong. It feels as if a desire to read my Bible should develop naturally and as if forcing the point isn't being honest.
But, then I think a bit longer. I think this plan is actually a good plan. I don't always feel like doing the things I should do. To be more honest, I rarely feel like doing the things I should do. I feel like doing their exact opposite. The only thing that changes that is to make (however unnaturally) those things a part of my life. By doing the things I should do, they become the things I want to do, and, even if the beginning feels forced, what I'm doing is, in and of itself, good.
This little internal debate reminded me of one of my favorite scenes from a film, the "Bastille" scene from Paris, j'Taime. The film is made of little vignettes, each taking place in a different arrondissement of Paris. I highly recommend you watch this. I also highly recommend you keep a tissue nearby while you do so. :)
