19 March, 2009

Permission to Daydream

It's strange what circumstances bring us to a state of reflection. It could be anything, really. Some people find their peace on a country stroll. Others prefer their reverie with foamed milk, two sugars and a biscotti. And still others forget about the entire concept until something reminds them that you don't require permission to daydream.

I'm a member of that last group.

It took three weeks of being "laid up," or under the weather in one way or another for me to find a single hour of meditation. Is anyone preventing me from a moment's peace? Well, perhaps the nine dogs we were raising made it difficult, but there were still hours of my day spent on mindful chores or mindless pastimes, and any one of those ours could have been spared for a chance to breathe. Today, I've found that hour, and I just want to preserve the sensory experience of it, in full.

The weather is warm today, the breeze light and I can hear the occasional chirp of our resident yellow-striped honeyeaters in the yellow-flowered tree outside. The dogs are all sleeping and, perhaps for the first waking moment since our last power failure, the television is off. A dingy white pedestal fan and an equally dingy white fridge are the only mechanical singers in the afternoon choir, and even the cars and neighbors seem to have taken the noontime off. But the smells are what really draw me in. Since morning, a pot of dried chickpeas has been simmering on the stove, exhaling a warm, breaddy aroma that has chased all trace of puppy from the room. Now, with my lunch of yesterday's homemade split pea soup joining the bouquet, my house smells of home and quiet and nourishment. The sights are few: a too-big purple couch, the breakfast dishes still in their morning spots, and a book sits splayed beside me, waiting for me to take it up once more.

I need to do this, more often. I think I need it every day. My books, though numerous, have become dusty with cobwebs of neglect in a year of movement, change, adjustment, and strain. The television, while usually present as a passive chatty friend that helps whittle the hours away, isn't anything particularly special to me. Yet, in the past year, I've rarely let it rest. It's not even the shows that interest me, nor the latest news report. It's simply the presence of voice during daylight hours that keeps the little box flicked on. But what's so bad about silence? I think it's time to rediscover a bit of it.

So, good blogaverse...if, like me, you too have forgotten sounds beyond digital, or your reading has dissolved into nothing but a domino chase of blogs and articles, try to remember that not one of us needs permission to daydream. In truth, we should be asking ourselves forgiveness for putting it off.

6 comments:

Margo said...

Hooray! You're back again!!

Sorry to hear you've been poorly - hope you'll have a spring in your step again soon.

I know exactly what you mean about tv on during hte day - it took me AGES to wean myself off that one

Any chance of a new puppy-pic? :)

Kelly said...

It's good to be back! I have missed all my gardening friends :)

Health is so fickle, isn't it? I'm hoping by tending my spiritual health that the physical health will soon follow.

It's strange, really. I don't much care for TV. I'm much more of a movie girl. But the din of TV does make housewifery sans motherhood a bit less lonely. Time to remember that books are friends too!

Definitely chances of puppy pics. Tomorrow's post will be all about the little buggers.

I'm so glad you're still around to read my ramblings, and I hope things are well with you and all recovered from the fires!

Anonymous said...

Ahhh....

Anonymous said...

you sit in a house all day and all you do is complain?

Kelly said...

Gustoso: Welcome to the Plot. I'm really enjoying your blog!

Kelly said...

Dear Anonymous Troll: Yep, that's right. While you're busy contributing to society by learning to say "Would you like fries with that?" I'm sitting around the house all day doing insignificant things like helping cultivate, harvest and preserve nearly 100kg of food in one season, baking bread, making breakfast cereal, making jams, sauces, etc, raising nine dogs, doing my half of $80,000 worth of equity-building home improvements, handling the finances, cooking, cleaning, and still somehow managing to work as a (paid) writer for several magazines and an advertising agency. That's exactly why I haven't had time to read a single book in an entire year...because I'm so gosh-darn lazy.

What did you do today? Paint your nails? Yep, you really put me in my place.

(To the other readers: Many choose not to feed trolls. I prefer to poke the prey a bit.)