Busy Lives

September 28th, 2010

Like their mother and father before them, my sons love to read Calvin and Hobbes comic strips.  Before the boys were born, I gave my husband Bill Watterson’s complete Calvin and Hobbes anthology – three giant hardbound books full of strip after strip of the classic cartoon.  Thanks to the fact that the books are almost as big as the kids themselves, they have been well-worn in the living room from hours of reading.  The younger son called me yesterday to “help” as the pages of the volume he was reading had pulled clean away from the spine and cover and had basically pinned him in his chair.  Oh well.

One of Calvin’s lines has resonated with me for many years, and is a thought I often ponder on behalf of my own kids – especially during their busy fall days when school is followed by homework is followed by football practice is followed by bed, night after night.

“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”

For the boys, a little time is found between 3:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon and 7:00 a.m. Monday morning, and I try to respect that by not filling it with too many “have tos”.  With the exception of their football games on Saturday mornings and family chores worked in at some point, the weekend is usually theirs to do all the nothing they can come up with.  For us adults, however, that time is harder and harder to find.  It seems there is always something to do, or something that can be done.

As I have mentioned in other posts, I believe that there is nothing quite so important as taking care of oneself.  Especially if that self is a caregiver in any capacity.  Find a little nothing to do once in awhile.  Find the time to do it.

Carrie Hastriter – Co-Founder, Caregiver’s Touch