Spending free time

Revgals asks: Tell us how you would spend: 1. a 15 minute break 2. an afternoon off 3. an unexpected free day 4. a week's vacation 5. a sabbatical

A fifteen minute break is probably the hardest. If I pick up a book, it will be an afternoon off. If I check my email, there's usually something work related. Even walking the dogs takes more than 15 minutes! And I'm trying to stay out of the kitchen as much as possible.
I'd spend 15 minutes sitting still, doing nothing more than being quiet. More than that would likely require 15 minutes of thought to decide what to do in the 15 minutes. :-)

I take afternoons off, though, and find that this is a good time to run short errands. If there aren't any, I like to plan dinner and maybe invite someone over to share it with me. Then, of course, there are always dogs who would like to go for a walk and a book beckoning me into the comfy chair in the living room.

Unexpected free days are rare indeed. Sleeping until 7 sounds like a good way to start one. Not getting dressed until almost noon sounds good, too. Then going where my heart leads or not going at all, eating whatever I want and loving being a slug feels like a good idea. Since today is my day off, this also sounds like my "plan" for today!

A week's vacation is easy. I'd head north to see my mom and a few sisters. Or I'd head south and see my kids. More likely the latter as I haven't seen the kids in quite a while and mom and the sibs wander through relatively often.

Now sabbatical planning is at the back of most of our minds almost all the time, I think. I know I should do some study but I'm more intrigued by the idea of doing a pulpit exchange or two. There is a small congregation in Orvieto, Italy that is currently without a priest. I wouldn't mind spending three months there. But that also sounds like work except the scenery is different. So I do think I would travel, spend some time on Iona and Lindisfarne and maybe see about taking a course at Oxford or St. John's College, Durham. I'd like to do more singing, too, especially the Hours. Of course, any sabbatical plans rely on financial considerations so my guess is that my plans will remain in the back of my mind a little longer than I had hoped.

I really don't have problems wondering what to do with time off. There is always a good book at hand, fiction as well as work-related. The dogs are always glad of my company whether we are playing, walking or just napping in the sun. And I have been known to spend an hour or two playing solitaire on the computer or doing crossword puzzles. The hard part of time off is not feeling like I should be doing something else, calling on parishioners or planning ahead.