{"id":552,"date":"2009-08-31T08:42:04","date_gmt":"2009-08-31T15:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=552"},"modified":"2025-11-07T10:27:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:27:00","slug":"summer-months-and-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=552","title":{"rendered":"Summer months and Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day I instituted the first of a monthly routine of Free Electronics Day.\u00a0\u00a0 We had a pool party to attend so it wasn’t that bad on the kids.\u00a0 And we (Mom and Dad) had to also give up computer and television,which was interesting.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I helped sort Lego’s for my middle son while the other kids just wandered about the house lost in their own thoughts.\u00a0 (Truly they enjoy doing that.)\u00a0 I offered to play a board game or something with them but they declined.\u00a0 Few chores were done and\u00a0we were amazingly lazy.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And I had an epiphany.\u00a0 The day not only seemed to stretch forever but it\u00a0felt a lot like the summer’s I’d had growing up.\u00a0\u00a0Those languid days of nothing that seemed to go on for years.\u00a0 I thought it was just a perception of time difference as\u00a0I aged.\u00a0 But now I’m wondering if it’s a symptom of too many choices\u00a0or\/and\/of things to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s the classic example of how boredom can make just standing in a line for 2 minutes seem like 10 intolerable hours.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet, if you completely remove the NEED to do anything specific and the NEED to accomplish anything with your day.\u00a0 The day seems to stretch out in time without any of the usual stress involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By 11 am I looked at my watch and was amazed.\u00a0 It felt as if it should be 1pm and not 11am.\u00a0 I had the whole day ahead of me to accomplish so few goals.\u00a0 I actually finished the family filing!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Now it could be that instead of retreating to a book during a no-electronic day I chose to do other small things and try to play with the kids.\u00a0 I’m willing to concede that may have played a part in slowing down time.\u00a0 Because I’ve spent an entire weekend doing nothing but reading and by the end of it I wasn’t anywhere near as relaxed and introspective as I was by the end of Sunday.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course I’m not going to go so far as to suggest meditation.\u00a0 I’m not that kind of person.\u00a0 I can sit quiet with my thoughts but they will enevitably entertain itself with some scenario or another.\u00a0 Every time I try to clear my mind or think on just one thing, well… I fall asleep.\u00a0 So no meditation for me unless I’m planning a nap!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But simplifying my life on a daily basis.\u00a0 THAT is something that sounds rather intriguing these days.\u00a0 Giving myself just 1 to 2 tasks to achieve instead of frantically trying to put as many daily dents in all the giant stacks of “stuff” I’ve given myself to do.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps that will be the true path to my own personal nirvana.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Or a nervous breakdown as my “to do” list explodes in overload.\u00a0 But I imagine the Sanitarium may be blissfully relaxing!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I instituted the first of a monthly routine of Free Electronics Day.\u00a0\u00a0 We had a pool party to attend so it wasn’t that bad on the kids.\u00a0 And we (Mom and Dad) had to also give up … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3407,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/3407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}