Bene, migliore,, il la cosa migliore*

My nephew loves movies. He often sees situations as a director would – for instance, I was saying recently that I didn’t think I’d ever sky dive. He said, “if this were a movie, the next scene would be of you jumping out of a plane.”

This time last year, I was in Italy, living la dolce vita very literally. Life was sweet. Temporarily, I had no real responsibilities other than a bit of work, no social or church obligations, but lots of time to do exactly what I wanted. It was wonderful, and all the better because it was temporary. I like having obligations in my real life. But, one thing I did take from Italy was the knowledge that it is good to take some time to slow down and enjoy the moment. I had lost that for a while, as I rushed from work to gym to party to church. I decided I would avoid over-scheduling myself in the future.

So, as my 11-year old nephew could have predicted, one year later, I’ve been running myself a bit ragged. There are lots of good things going on– new job, great church job, social things, gym, yoga, book group, choir, etc, etc. Please know that I am NOT looking for pity. I am well aware that “too many fun things to do” is not among the Top Ten Great Trials of Life. But, as a wise friend reminded me last night, there are good things, better things, and the best things, and I need to do a little choosing between them. I was telling her about my week, and she asked if I’d actually taken time to shower (I had, for the record). We were talking about which things add to and enrich my life and which things are just more stuff. Not that anything’s bad – as she says, I’m not considering dealing crack – there really aren’t any activities that are no-brainer I-should-probably-stop-that-immediately. But sometimes sleep and a real meal should probably trump some of the other things.

As an effort to step back a bit, I deleted a few things from my agenda on Saturday. Instead of brunch, church educational conference, family barbecue, Living Traditions, and party, I went to the park with my friend Juli who’s visiting from out of town, and we sat by the lake and watched the geese and their little goslings. I got to enjoy the beautiful weather, catch up with a good friend, and remember what it felt like to do exactly what I want. Which is the best thing to do, once in a while.


* bad translation of good, better, best. Ugh, I’m forgetting all my Italian. Maybe I should sign up for a community cla…oh wait.