Room to Work
Paintings by Zhen-Huan Lu inspire me to simplify my life. There is something so serene but also vigorous about his still lifes. Here is room to rest, but also room to really do things.
January is the time I (and many others) take to clear a space for new goals and projects—physical space but also mental, emotional, and virtual space. I order my shelves, sort through my papers, organize my computer files, examine my spiritual life, and reevaluate my daily rhythm. I greet each new year with a battery of resolutions, and I need room to work with them.
It’s May now, and I need to renew that commitment to clarity. Some inessential things have crowded out the better things to do.
I would encourage you too to renew your own New Year’s resolutions. A broken resolution is not irreparable; it is an opportunity to remember your resolve, humbly realize that you’re not there yet, and strengthen yourself to continue working on it. I needed the reminder, so I’m posting here the daily schedule I prepared for myself five months ago. I need to clear the space again, so that I have room to work.
“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep you accounts on your thumbnail.” Thoreau
Rhythm provides simplicity and stability. The specific activities will vary from day to day, but a framework provides a place to put them. I order activities according to necessity and also to my mood. I like to be outside in the morning, and I also need to teach the boys. In the early afternoon I have an intellectual slump, and am much happier if I do less reading and writing and more physical or hands-on work. The evenings I like to devote to winding down, but I can actually be quite energetic, and might sing or dance instead.
Morning (teaching, outside work, intellectual work)
morning prayers and recitations
teach the boys
work in the garden
computer (blog, emails, research, schoolwork, bookkeeping)
Afternoon (hands-on projects, exercise)
practice the recorder
work on a personal project (refinish chair, etc.)
exercise (dance, pilates, weighted ball, five mile walk)
shower and body-brushing
Evening (winding down, preparing)
personal reading
read aloud to the boys
journaling, letter-writing
soak oatmeal for tomorrow’s breakfast
Weekly
ironing (every other week)
deep-cleaning of the house
make dinner
facial cleansing
wash hair
Monthly
bake bread
raw milk/ butter order
practice hymns for visit to nursing home
chiropractor appointment
You can’t do everything every day. Over a year ago, in my post “The Well-Tempered Life,” I defined my own daily necessities this way:—
Remember to include in the circle of my day....
communion with God Jehovah
grace-filled interaction with family and friends
the patient and motivated instruction of my brothers
some advancement, however small it may need to be, in my personal studies
a little play for the soul, whether in reading, writing, dancing, or dreaming
Honestly, those two first items alone would make for a very fine day.
Friday, May 18, 2012