Slow Sundays

Alexa, play mindful music...

As I child, I recall most Sundays mornings being spent listening to the sounds of clanking pots and pans, church music, and taking in the yummy smells of baked goods and fried foods as my mother labored in the kitchen to prepare us a delicious and love-filled meal.

I also have fond memories of where I witnessed my parents spend Sunday afternoons reading the newspaper, napping, and/or eating a sweet dessert while watching football on the sofa.

Sometimes, if we were too loud, my mother would bark at us to keep it down and threaten to force my brothers and me to take an afternoon nap. All this to say that from an early age, it was clear to me that Sundays were a day of rest and relaxation. Other than my mother cooking, my parents loved a good ole lazy Sunday. I remember one time asking my father’s permission to go somewhere that required him to drop me off and pick me up. On rare occasions, my father said yes, but there was always an unspoken rule that Sunday is a day of REST.

As an adult, I have come to embrace Sundays as such - as a day of not just rest, but a day of nurturing, reflection, and SLOWness. Now, most of my Sundays are now spent in my home office/personal space surrounded by my favorite things: my books, my birds, and my favorite pieces of art.

Sometimes I journal. Sometimes I sleep. Sometimes I cuddle with one of my dogs on the sofa. Most Sundays my birds, Larry and Janet, spend the day out of their cages.

The one demand of all my Sundays is that they never feel extractive. They must always feel generative. Without Sundays like these, I don’t start my week with a full tank. Sometimes that’s okay. But other times, during mid-week, I often regret not slowing down and making time to listen to my body and rest.

My hope is that you have at least one SLOW day a week to nurture yourself, reflect, and rest.

In these times, practices like these remind us of what is most important. In order to take care of each other, we must first learn how to take care of ourselves.

Here’s to #SLOWSUNDAYS