Simple Suggestion # 176... Just be

Here's Shadow, riding along happily in the backseat of the car.

We've reached that point in August where I'm feeling singularly unmotivated to do much of anything, and I'm wishing I was our dog. Oh, to be content to lie around and just be... but no, guilt assails me if I'm not weeding or picking or writing or... something. It's hard to just be, even in these languorous summer days that seem to demand that we don't do much. The problem is guilt.

But as my friend Mark always says, "Guilt is good for about thirty seconds. Then what do you do with it?"

Do I let it motivate me to do something positive? (I just cleaned the bathroom, stem to stern.) Or do I excuse myself from all those "shoulds" and go on enjoying my day without guilt? (That's the plan for the rest of the day.)

In a society that is obsessed with productivity and efficacy, it's good to buck the trend and be subversively countercultural now and then.

What are you doing with these dog days of summer?

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.