Spring Break means break...from everything.

It is a rainy Tuesday afternoon and I am sitting in my friend's living room in Eastern Vermont.  We are surrounded on all sides by scraggly pines and rain dripping down the roof.  A cat is curled up next to me.  Since my flight north for my week of spring break, I have been optimizing relaxation time, alternating between walks in the woods, reading, marathon friend chat sessions, postcard making, and eating delicious food.  It is so quiet up here.  No busses.  No drunk angry men weaving down the middle of the street at 2am.

It's also socially quiet.  In DC, every weekend has three birthday parties and a friend's band's CD release party to choose between.  Every weekend night I have to apologize to someone about not being able to be there and support them.  I acknowledge this is an incredibly delightful issue to have, am ever grateful to be surrounded by amazing talented loving people, and see it is a bit obnoxious to even suggest this is problematic.  But going away means I am obliged to no one.  I can't be there because I'm simply not there.  I love it.  My days are all mine to waste away.  There is endless time for guilt free inactivity.

In response to the break from my external life, I have also taken a break from my meditation practice. After all, it's like a week-long sit.  At least I've told myself that.  And it is true that I've found it easy to move throughout my day with presence and calm when the biggest stressor is whether to nap before or after I read my book.

However, I've mentally made some compelling arguments I'm having with myself about why I "should" sit.
Consistency:  Like anything in this world, from running to teeth-brushing, it is the kind of thing that's easier to keep doing it if I keep doing it.
Time:  I've got it.  Oodles of it.  So there's no reason not to, really.
Depth:  With time often comes depth.  Sitting for 1/2 hour of 45 minutes is a different experience than the 15-20 I manage to eek out on a weekday.  Furthermore, without the stressors of school, I can likely more easily find my internal checkpoint.
Putting cash in the bank:  I do think that practicing now is not just for my benefit as I am sitting around drinking my fifth latte of the day, but also for the (alarmingly not so distant) future when life gets challenging again.  I know I'll be less of a jerkface in the future if I practice not being a jerk now.

Seems convincing, doesn't it?

But there is also something really lovely about relaxing for a minute.  From everything.  Even sitting. To just let life carry me through the week without having to force any structure around it.  To choose for days in a row to not sit, to not run, to eat half a chocolate bar, or a whole one.

In a highly structured and scheduled world, I am finding that I even need a break from those things that support me.  And I think, despite my intellectual arguments otherwise, that it's okay to take a break from everything every once and awhile.