Weekends were originally intended for rest, but today’s career-centric lifestyle has long since defeated the spirit of the weekend and forced us to cram the rest of our non-career lives into two lightning-fast days: family, friends, housekeeping, even personal grooming all have to wait till the weekend, and carving out more time just for rest and relaxation from what little that’s left is no mean feat. Rejuvenating body and spirit has become a precious commodity, which usually comes with the price tag of a swanky spa weekend getaway.
But it doesn’t always have to be so. Some things work better on your spirit than aromatherapy candles and exotic piped-in music (this coming from someone who, at one point, had a massage almost every week and had to go cold turkey):
Holding the hand of a child who wouldn’t let go of yours for an entire afternoon. With a child, you never have to worry about subtext and sincerity. What you see is what you get. So when your niece insists on holding your hand while she goes to see every single featured creature at the ocean park and then refuses to let you go when it’s time to say goodbye, you know it’s really for the pleasure of your company. If that isn’t refreshing, I don’t know what is.
Watching true talent at work. Spending 4 hours of your Saturday night at the salon doing nothing but wait for your mother to have her hair cut and colored doesn’t sound much like a good time, especially if you’ve just spent the entire afternoon being jostled every which way by busloads of grade-schoolers and their parents while at the ocean park with all 20-plus members of your family. But watching the stylist and colorist work on my mom’s hair with such care and precision, and then seeing the results when they were done, was simply amazing. It was like watching art unfold before my eyes. Just beautiful.
A good night’s sleep on fresh sheets after a long warm shower. One of my all-time favorites. The warm water relaxes tired muscles, and the feel of the cool sheets against warm skin is pure bliss. When coupled with the scent of freshly laundered and pressed linen, it’s a magic carpet ride to dreamland. Mmmm… sigh…
Waking up to a day with absolutely nothing on the calendar. A rare treat that must be savored to its very last drop. Carpe diem!
Truly, there are some things that money can’t buy. A refreshing weekend amidst the craziness of the pre-Christmas rush without ever once having to whip out a MasterCard is possible. Life is good.
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