
When I get too tired I spend more of my time daydreaming. As I walk along, minding my own business, the simplest random thought or some sight along my way will trigger a long and involved scenario about something I might have done better at some point in my life. Or maybe it will be about some action, full of righteousness, which I will never actually take. Lost in thought, all due to fatigue. I guess the back of my mind figures I’m not watching and takes the reins, churning over something—anything—which has caused me stress, ever, in my life. I’ll find that I’ve gone for a quarter mile without particularly noticing my surroundings.
I don’t want to focus on these sorts of thoughts and become that person. I don’t want to get worked up about things all the time or spend my hours in crabby attitudes. And in our world today there are so many issues to get upset about! So, lately I’ve been paying more attention to the ways I find peace. I want my daydreams to be about beauty, not potential catastrophes or that shit of a girl who wronged me in middle school.

One of the recent and lovely additions to my daily routine is that my son has got me started drinking tea in the afternoons. The new habit of afternoon tea involves sampling multiple infusions of Chinese fermented varieties or Tiawanese oolongs. This simple repetition of waiting, smelling, and tasting draws me back into the moment and allows a break from my busy day and all the oh-so-important things I have to do. What wisdom there is in this time honored worldwide ritual of afternoon tea!
Reading books is something most people don’t seem to do so much of anymore. We do a lot of reading, but it’s the skimming and scrolling type of reading. I, for one, don’t spend enough time with my feet up, sitting in front of the fire, a cat curled in my lap and my nose in a book. I’ve been trying to keep a habit of dipping into a fantasy novel at bedtime.

I live in a place where I can enjoy the smell of the woods, the crashing of the waves, the pleasure of a broad vista. There’s mountains and islands, forest and wetlands to explore. Yet if I’m not careful, the weeks can fly by and I waste these opportunities. I’ve never regretted dropping everything and heading for the beach. My life is more productive if I take time to feed my spirit with the beauty of nature and take deep breaths of the open air. Relaxing in this way helps me to have a quiet joy in just being fully myself.
But you know, for me, it always comes back to the sense of wonder. On those hikes through the woods, it’s important to pause and view that fabulous rock formation from several angles or feel the bark of the astonishingly tall fir. I especially love to stumble upon a fairy ring. Out in the woods, things become clear: I can choose to use my imagination for worrying and absent-mindedly cycling through unnecessary stress. Or, I can use it for speculating about what kind of creature might live inside that hollow tree.