Greetings and salutations – yes, I love Charlotte’s Web.
Welcome to Day D (D-Day sounded too…World War II for this post)! Yesterday’s
post left off with Consuming, which made me think of Dinner…and away we go!
Dinner
Dinner, one of those important meal things, typically
consumed in the evening hours. When I was young, I heard breakfast, lunch, Dinner,
and supper. I got confused as to what was Dinner and what was supper. One of my
grandmas explained that her family used the term ‘Dinner’ for the biggest meal
of the day, and they often ate that in the middle of the day, and supper was
then the evening meal. Their meals were breakfast, Dinner, and supper, for the most
part. My other grandma told me (yep, I asked to compare stories) that they had
their biggest meal in the evening, so they had breakfast, lunch, and Dinner.
Then there’s my experience of such things as ‘breakfast for Dinner’ – which I’m
pretty sure in my grandmothers’ day would have completely screwed up the entire
order of things, and may have caused the planet to start spinning the other
way!
Overall, though, when I think of Dinner, I think of a larger
group of family - and maybe even friends
– gathering around a table to share a meal, some stories, and that amazing gift
of time. My family did a lot of sit-down Dinners together. Breakfast was eaten
in time to make it to school or work; lunch was eaten at work or school, and Dinner
was a time to gather around the table, eat food, and talk about our days, and
other such bits of awesome. Even as my siblings and I grew older and got into
more activities, we still often sat and ate Dinner together. To me, Dinner is a
community thing, a Decompression Deal, and a great transition from what I have
to do to Downtime when I can do whatever floats my boat.
Downtime
I think this cropped up in my brain because my life has been
dealing with a serious Drought in this area. Please don’t’ misunderstand me, I
love me some Downtime! I don’t have a superhero complex – the mere concept of
thinking that anyone can’t do anything without me is too weird to even think
about thinking about (ooh, massage your brain over that one!) – I just happen
to be at one of those points in life where my proverbial plate is incredibly
full. Every time I schedule Downtime (yes, I schedule it – I tend to respect it
far more when I schedule time for me) something crops up and it often is
something that is both important and urgent. It so often lately has been something
that I absolutely cannot reschedule or just put aside for the time being, so I
end up nixing my Downtime. This is something I’m trying to work at fixing.
I think we all need more Downtime. I hear and see so many
people feeling so much stress, and I think a lot of it has to do with how much we
feel we have to do, so we don’t allow ourselves to do what we want to do. I
realize that much of the time this is because we feel we can’t allow ourselves
to relax when we have so much that must get done. I do this, too. I’m just
trying to work on not doing it. There’s too much out there that shows how much
all this ‘doing’ is damaging our health. I’m working on not doing so much, even
though I fully admit that I suck at it. I’m still trying! I don’t even think it
matters what I choose to do for my Downtime, as long as it is what I want to
do, rather than what I need to do. Sometimes, the two coincide. I just don’t
worry about it. To have Downtime, I like to garden, read, write, meditate,
dance, organize (yeah, sometimes it is what I want to do so I relax...don’t
ask, I know I’m an odd duck), nap, walk a few miles with my headphones plugged
into my random playlists of favorite songs, walk a few miles listening to what
I encounter, and walk my Dogs.
Dogs
Dogs, often touted as man’s best friend, make my life so
much happier. I currently have a Dog, Jackson, who I adopted when he had just
turned a year old. I adopted him on Earth Day, so every April I get to
celebrate another year of having him in my life. This Earth Day I will have had
him for eight years! Wowza! I got my other Dog, Salty, a few months after
Jackson, when my sister and brother-in-law rescued her and she didn’t get along
with their Dogs – and I think there was a limit of how many Dogs they could
have at their military posting. Somehow, in the in-between weeks, she decided I’m
her Alpha, so it makes sense that she owns me with Jackson. She’s my old gal,
since we think she is about thirteen right now. I am definitely blessed. These
two greet me at the door every time I come inside – even from just taking out
the trash – with their hind ends wagging like they’ve been missing me for
months. Every time! Now that is a way to feel great!
They are both rescue
babies, and they are so much of my heart, I can’t even express it fully. I’m a
very proud Dog mom, and I totally understand that I get more out of our
relationship than they do. They give so much love (and middle of the night random
kisses and cold noses on my foot or leg if it pokes out from under the covers,
just so I won’t forget I’m loved), and are so happy with the simplest things…except
brushes and baths. When it comes to those, they both look at me and ask with
those eyes why they are being punished with the scratchy thing or the wet stuff
when they didn’t do anything wrong. I know there are cat people, Dog people,
and the battles between them can get fierce. I have always had Dogs, though I
do like cats, and I ‘get’ Dogs a lot more. Yep, I’m a Dog person. Actually, I’m
an animal person, but when I’m getting ready for another animal to ‘own’ me
(and they train me so very well), my choice does go straight to the Dogs. And
pet rocks. Pet rocks are cool. They play dead really well!
Pet rocks aside, no matter how you choose to enjoy your
Downtime, I encourage us all to cultivate some, as well as enjoy an actual
Dinner time with friends or family soon (or both), and just Deflate the stresses
on your shoulders, and share the love with a Dog – remember, petting your Dog
helps lower your blood pressure! =) Let’s get healthy! See you for E Day tomorrow!
Thanks for your time!
JBB
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