A little girl with large yellow rain boots stood inside our local pizza shop. She could not have been older than four. She began to awkwardly jump up and down, bending her knees and tucking her yellow boots behind her. Her father looked on, beleaguered by the day, confused by his daughter. After several jumps, he finally asked her, “What are you doing?” Her reply made me chuckle out loud.
“I’m trying to kick my own butt.”
As amusing as her attempts were, she was unsuccessful.
And yet, I feel like I’m kicking my own ass on a regular basis.
The weekend prior I was staying up late watching the Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy. It is also a story about a father figure and a four year old child. I found myself really enjoying the movie – recalling a simpler time in my life when I watched it the first time – admiring the care-free attitude and lifestyle of Sandler’s character. His approach to parenting was refreshingly chill – albeit occasionally crossing the line to inappropriate.
At the same time, I also found myself criticizing my choice to stay up late and watch a movie I had seen several times before. Believing it would cause me to sleep in, “waste the next day away,” and prevent me from doing the many things I “needed” to get done.
Yet, weekends are designed for us to rest and recover from what is often a long and stressful work week, not to catch up on other work that we didn’t get done professionally or work around the house that is waiting for us.
In a productivity driven culture, we too often measure our days by how much we get done, instead of not measuring them at all.
The idea of being hard on ourselves for not measuring up on the weekends is real and a little ridiculous. It is often simply a continuation of how we feel throughout the week.
I called an old roommate to reminisce about our halcyon days, when we woke up on Saturdays without the aid of an alarm or a list awaiting us. The toughest decision we would make all day was deciding where we wanted to go grab breakfast (or lunch depending on when we got up). We came back, maybe watched some football on TV or went to a movie. Even taking an afternoon nap if we felt like it. We had no phones to check, no laptops to get a little extra work in, nowhere we needed to go. Maybe we would do a little laundry or light reading. We essentially did whatever we felt like in the moment.
Of course, with age and family comes greater responsibility. But this doesn’t mean we need to carry it around with us every waking moment. We can put it down. It will be waiting for us when it’s time to pick it up again and that’s ok.
I hope that little girl is never able to kick her own butt. Although, it would be awesome if she always finds the time to try something silly without a care the world
This Week’s Recommendation: In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day and this post, listen to “Sweet Things” by Van Morrison from his classic album, Astral Weeks. The album itself is an attempt to navigate the transition from the simplicity of our youth and the complexities of adult life and this song is particularly on point.
Share this with someone who could use a nudge to stop kicking their own butt.