It was especially wonderful in contrast to the rather dull and slightly melancholic week that preceded it.
Here's why:
1. I went to see "As You Like It" performed by the Grassroots Shakespeare Company. It was so good! First of all, the setting was beautiful. They set up this small stage in Rock Canyon park, so we brought our blankets and laid them out on the green grass and watched the play as the fluffy white clouds floated across the background and the soft breeze sifted through the trees. It was positively lovely. One of my friends brought scotcheroos, so we passed those around as we laughed until our sides hurt at the love quandaries of Rosalind and Orlando.
2. After the play, we all came back to my house and sat around on my magnificent couches and talked about things that had happened and things that might happen and threw pillows haphazardly at each other. After most everyone had left, two of my friends and I ended up going into a deep spiritual discussion that went until 2 in the morning. I have so many questions. And they usually have answers, even if their answer is nothing more than "I don't know. Good question."
3. I hiked to Stewart Falls and discussed the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith with some of my study abroad peeps. It was the first of what will hopefully be many book club rendezvous. It was so fun to get back together with them and recreate a small part of what we spent three months in the UK doing together. Here is one of many beautiful passages from the book:
"Because," explained Mary Rommely simply, "the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she believe. She must start out by believing in things not of this world. Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination. I, myself, even in this day and at my age, have great need of recalling the miraculous lives of the Saints and the great miracles that have come to pass on earth. Only by having these things in my mind can I live beyond what I have to live for."
"The child will grow up and find out things for herself. She will know that I lied. She will be disappointed."
"That is what is called learning the truth. It is a good thing to learn the truth one's self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character."
"If that is so," commented Katie bitterly, "then we Rommelys are rich."
Read it. I definitely recommend it.
4. I got my hair cut. I don't look like a fledgling polygamist anymore and my hair is 1,000 times more touchable.
5. My friend was house sitting a beautiful and very expensive home for a few days. She had the privilege of inviting some of us over to swim in the lovely pool and to hang out on the patio and make s'mores with Symphony chocolate bars on the fire pit while the sun set. It was fun to feel like I was rich and lived in luxury, even though it was only for a night and I had to return to my less-than-luxurious home and squeaky bed afterward.
6. Sunday. Going to church and walking through the sunshine with the breeze lifting my hair off of my neck. Eating fruit salsa with cinnamon and sugar chips, and washing it all down with mint lemonade. Listening to this song on repeat. Taking three hour naps and waking up to the sound of leaves brushing across my window. Feeling both exquisitely exhausted and exquisitely refreshed at the same time.
7. Thinking about this quote from the movie "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty":
“To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”
And dreaming about all of the things I want to experience in life, like volunteering at an orphanage in Ecuador, buying my own car, traveling to Santorini, Greece, and going on hikes with my family and my dog (once I get a family and a dog of course).
There you have it.
Weekends refresh the soul.
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