Paints, Canvas and a Day Off

It's my birthday, so it is hard for work to deny me the day off. For that matter, hard for me to deny me the day off. Weekends are usually eaten up laundry, grocery shopping, housecleaning and other mundane chores. It is hard to make time for what you really would like to do with your scarce free time off. I can tick off a list at any time of things I would like to do just for the sake of trying it; some because I have a feeling I would be really good at, others...just a desire to get my hands in it. I want to play with clay, I want to hand finish a piece of wood that I have made into something, I want to make little garden areas that each make you want to stop and rest awhile, I want to wander down to a stream and throw a fly line...the list is endless. But usually the list of things that have to be done overshadows the fun stuff. So for my free time today, I will will not rake leaves (what I should be doing, but really...who are they hurting?), I won't mop the kitchen floor, (no 5 second rule for awhile) and I won't even get out of my pajamas (why waste an outfit). Instead, I will paint. It's not a new activity for me, but it still is a break from the "sit at a desk day" I usually endure during the week. I suspect if I had to earn my living as an artist, I would begin to dream of days in an office, lunches out with coworkers, and being surrounded by thinking people. It's all part of that learning to be happy with what you have, and grateful that we can take a day off on our birthday.