Every weekend should last 3 days

When you think about it, weekends are barely 48 h. It takes some time, at least for me, to wind down on Friday after work, and Sunday evening no longer feels like the weekend anymore because I often have the Sunday blues and start preparing for and apprehending the week, like many people. I just enjoyed a long weekend, and every time the calendar grants us a bonus weekend day, I cannot help but think we should advocate for a 3-day weekend. Like a kid in a candy store, I really tried to fill all my senses, make the most of ''not doing much'', which paradoxically means accomplishing a lot in another realm, as we create some spaciousness inside. It was like a mini ''joy in simplicity'' retreat: I enjoyed my pool, daily walks, eating breakfast outside, and even close to midnight last evening I was still stretching the blissful time off by embarking in a craft, découpage-collage project: a card for my special romantic partner. Scissors, glue stick, golden scraps of paper had not been put away after I had done such creations for my sons' birthdays earlier this month.

You see, it takes TIME and its inherent freedom to have a life that looks like my kitchen table full of colorful collage items. During the week, for those of us who have schedules full of constraints, it is a tyrannical, productivity-obsessed version of time that we are faced with, and its endless, rigid deadlines, fabricated admin urgencies (like the ''time study'' form at work where I must qualify how I spent each segment of a 7-day week that happened weeks ago. I am always amazed at how we are asked to waste TIME looking back at TIME we cannot even remember because it is gone !). But we can take a break from that, we must remind ourselves and see that time, real time, either doesn't exist (it is a perception, like believes my dear friend Renée), it is an illusion, or in my view,. benevolent, a witness to our life and love waiting to unfold.  It is free, fluid, and cannot be put into the cage of a calendar.

Sunday, I followed my inspiration and since I had attended a meeting not very far, I stopped by my friends' and picked some of their most beautiful strawberries. A frog as big as the pulp of my pinky was watching and I conversed with this cutie.

Yesterday, a bonus weekend day, I derived satisfaction in working with what I have (''faire avec''). I practiced ''carpe diem'', one of my favorite lines from one of my all-time favorite movies, The Dead Poet Society. I visited a dear friend in convalescence after she told me she was back home, and I let my kitchen decide what I would bake for her, based on what I had available (ingredients that led to the appearance of semi-vegan brownies) and my samples of stationary and ribbons decided what I could handmake for her. I was inspired by her laughter and beautiful spirit despite a major surgical intervention, and paused with gratitude for my own health.

I also attended an enchanting group I have been part of for 4 years now. I call it my ''spiritual multi-vitamin''. It is a very unique group of people who open wide the valves of love and compassion so that everyone coming in contact with such angels ends up making progress in their journey towards acceptance and inner peace. I step into this space with incredible, luminous souls because we help each other see the truth of ourselves. 

I have also been journaling and I read some journal entries from 14 years ago, making quotes from my son, then toddler, an adorable bedtime read. As you can see, I had plenty to do and didn't do electronic charting as I had intended to. I am glad I was able to protect this time to find silence and stillness in me.

And being in exile from workweek time allows me to feel a formless notion, maybe a phenomenon close to eternity, never attainable but that is promised at the end of this asymptotic line we protect by connecting with nature and disconnecting from our train of thoughts. That exile into being didn't serve my usual blog-writing on a platter of time until now, which also happens to be the birthday of my dear friend and ''time reflector'',  Renée, and of a dear uncle, Denis, who passed not long after my youngest son was born, and who sure knew how to fill his time on earth: with quiet bubbliness, kindness and love. I dedicate this blog to you both and all the people so dear to me right this moment.

Ah, maybe the 3-day weekend is to be found in loving beings such as Renée and Denis ! 

What about you ? Who is like a 3-day weekend in your life, every single day ?