Sunday Stories, Dolce far Niente

 

Sundays are slower. Sundays are lazier. Sundays are made for rest.

Sunday is never what it is supposed to be.

When I think of Sunday I think of slowness, relaxation, and lots of coffee.

Sunday is never that!

Sundays are my writing day. I submit my pieces to online and regular magazines and blogs. I write the pieces to get published and paid. I take a block of time for me. Sunday though is laundry and mopping and sweeping. It is cleaning up from the week and struggling to stay afloat. Sunday is for relaxation and slowing down, but none really do. We are cleaning up from our Monday to Saturday messes. We put jackets back where they go. It is for picking up things from the wrong room and getting them into the correct room. It is for mowing, cooking, shopping, and getting the to-do lists done.  Sunday is for resting, but we do not.

This Sunday I am taking it slow. I enjoyed a second cup of coffee. I wrote for some magazines. I wrote in my journal. I sip my tea slowly. I move about the house at a snail's pace. I am taking back my, what is the Italian saying?  Dolce far Niente! The sweetness of doing nothing. I am taking back my Italian roots and doing that. I am reading a book, looking at magazines, drinking coffee, tea, whatever, and achieving the sweetness. 

Sundays are for Dolce far Niente. Sunday is made for family gatherings, friends connecting, and all the things we want to do but cannot do. Sunday is made for you. It is made for you to enjoy the sweetness and joy of life. It is a day to be savored and cherished. It is relaxing in any way you see fit. It is already hot here in Georgia or I would have been on my swing in the morning out back. I love to go out there when it is cold in the fall and winter and lay on it with a blanket on me and do nothing. Stare off into the yard, look at the job I recently did mowing, and just be present and listen to the birds, to the world, the neighbors, and the kids playing through the back yards. 

Sunday is a day we can enjoy the sweetness and feel no guilt for doing so. The Italians do not say no no we do not deserve to do nada. They just do nothing and do it well Perhaps we all need a little more nothing in our lives. I know others who have every second of every day planned for themselves and their children. When do they have time to recharge? When do they allow their kids downtime for the kids to use their imaginations in play?

Life goes by in a flash. Tell the ones you love, that you love them. Tell the people important to you just how much they mean to you. Do the fishing with your family, take a camping trip, plant the flowers you love, and enjoy the sweetness of life. When I used to take my kids someplace we planned I always left time for relaxation. The world is spinning so fast we need some downtime. 

I pray this weekend finds you relaxing, in your house, yard, a friend's house, wherever, and that you get some downtime to just be. Listen to nature, take a hike, bring down your blood pressure and just be. Be the best that you can be but allow yourself to rest, restore, and to relax. Think of them as the three R's. 

May your day be filled with Dolce far Niente. May your heart be light. May your day be filled with love.

Happy Sunday from your writing friend

Debbie

xoxoxoxox