Making Time to Do Nothing

Two out of our three children are away at overnight camp for the next few weeks and the house is pretty quiet. For the past several months, my wife and I have both been plotting what we could accomplish during this time (i.e.with fewer meals to prepare, less laundry, no soccer games to drive to and only a dog and an eight year old to supervise.)

This past weekend was our first test of how much we can accomplish with a half empty nest. And I'm proud to say that accomplished almost nothing.

The weather was great, a lot of the neighborhood was away on vacation, and we did a whole lot of nothing. Instead of rushing from one activity to the next and squeezing in some time for work and house chores, we did little planning and a lot of hanging out. I sat on one neighbor's porch and had a conversation. We walked our dog and stopped in spontaneously on a friend who lives a few blocks away.

It's Monday morning and I feel recharged and ready for a productive week of work. It was a good reminder that sometimes we just need to do "nothing". And now that it is summertime, I look forward to having more days filled with nothing so that I can be even more productive when I am actually working.