Stringing Together a Perfect Day

I finished this book a few weeks ago but have been too sidetracked to remember to write down my favorite quote from the book. It is a cute book if you are looking for something cute to take your mind off life which isn't always cute! Here is my favorite quote of the whole book.

"Maybe happiness didn't have to be about the big, sweeping circumstances, about having everything in your life in place. Maybe it was about stringing together a bunch of small pleasures. Wearing slippers and watching the Miss Universe contest. Eating a brownie with vanilla ice cream. Getting to level seven in Dragon Master and knowing there were twenty levels to go.
Maybe happiness was just a matter of the little upticks-the traffic signal that said "Walk" the second you got there-and downticks-the itchy tag at the back of your collar-that happened to every person in the course of a day. Maybe everybody had the same allotted measure of happiness within each day.
Maybe it didn't matter if you were a world-famous heartthrob or a painful geek. Maybe it didn't matter if your friend was possibly dying. Maybe you just got through it. Maybe that was all you could ask for."
Page 282, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

So with this quote, I have started a journey of self-exploration today. I recruited Jeff this morning to get his thoughts as well. I asked him a simple question, "If you were able to order a perfect day, what would type of things would you put together?" Do you know what he said? "Doing absolutely nothing all day-having the freedom to come and go as I please without a "to-do list" that stretches a mile long. Taking time out to enjoy the day without feeling the day with junk that doesn't' bring us a bunch of joy."

His answer sounded pretty reasonable to me except I started thinking of all the things that we needed to get done today. I started to look at the clock and calculate the time that was left for us to get ready for church, to tackle our to-do list, meeting his parents for dinner later this evening, cleaning the house, finishing the laundry,grocery shopping and so on and so forth. Jeff grabbed my hand and said, "Enough! What would really happen if you weren't there to lead the children in song today? Nothing! And what would happen if we went to breakfast instead of church? Nothing! And why do we feel like we have to tackle our to do list in one day? Why don't we just chill out today and do whatever we please?"

And do you know, I think I am finding myself in the middle of a perfect day. I cleaned the house top to bottom (I love to clean for those of you wondering why this was in my perfect day. Nothing brings me more joy than the smell of a clean house), we ate breakfast at our favorite breakfast restaurant, we walked the aisles of Wal-Mart picking up a few things so that tomorrow I would not be rushing around trying to get ingredients for dinner, we watched a good movie and we will eat dinner with his parents in a few hours to celebrate her birthday. But for whatever reason today is turning out to be a perfect day because I am getting things done without rushing around while stressed about beating the clock.

Sometimes you just need to chill out, relax a little bit with the ones you love and throw out the blasted to-do list!