A Little Break: Am I Relaxing Yet?

 

 

Good morning to all you Lovers of Lydia,

I am beginning to suspect that I’m taking a couple of days off and–relaxing?  It’s an unfamiliar feeling.  There’s nagging tension that the Copy Editor hasn’t sent the Edited Copy, but her stated deadline was “no later than June 8.”  That would be tomorrow.  Is it possible that there are people in the world who are relaxed enough that when they say June 8 they don’t mean June 5th or 6th?  Who don’t do what I did week before last–promise end of business Friday and drive myself nearly into the ground so I could get it there on Wednesday?  I have already addressed that behavior in an earlier blog.

I am pretty sure I did some relaxing things over the weekend.  A former student from (only) 25 years ago, with whom I have reconnected on The Evil Facebook (more on that on another day), got in Friday evening and spent the night.  We ate pork roast with green beans and whole berry cranberry sauce, simmered all day, from bowls on our laps (the table I purchased in order to stop eating on my lap is covered with notebooks, file folders, and large reference volumes).  After dinner we walked across the street, bought two pints of Talenti Alphonso Mango Sorbetto and ate those on our laps with no bowls; we ate straight out of the cartons with large spoons.  I found out that Alphonso mangoes are the finest mangoes in all of India.

My student, a native of India himself, had just returned from a trip to visit family and to attend a cousin’s wedding.  He presented me with two Tibetan singing bowls, with wooden mallets.  I owned one of these bowls a few decades ago and, having watched him make them sing, I was convinced that I remembered the technique.  My brain probably does; my hands and arms–not yet.  I’ve been practicing this morning.   This activity is an ultimate source of relaxation–because it requires absolute concentration.  If I stop concentrating, the bowl stops singing.

Yesterday, after Sweth left, I walked to my son’s house to spend time with my new grandson and with cousins who are visiting and were scheduled to leave this morning.  Everyone had a shot at the small singing bowl.

I have gotten out my calendar this morning and, depending on a couple of pieces of information I need from Koehler Books, I am ready to start ticket-shopping for my book signings at book stores and assisted living facilities in four cities in the Southwest, Midwest, and South.

A little relaxation mixed with enough work so I don’t suddenly go crazy.  And, I’m printing photographs.  For this blog today, I’ve decided on a screenshot of my desktop.