Under the Banyan Tree

I'm not advocating procrastination here, but I do believe that sometimes taking a respite from  "serious" adult responsibilities, like work or grocery shopping or mowing the lawn after the kids forgot to or simply refused, makes us better people. Sometimes we just need to roll up our sleeves and play. When I was 19, I grabbed every opportunity to go dancing with my girlfriends on the weekends. I worked in an office during school breaks and took eighteen units during the semester, though I didn't always attend class (for reasons unrelated to dancing), and always enjoyed, sometimes even more than discussing Pascale or Voltaire, bustin' a move. Which I didn't do well but did do often. One night over Christmas break of my sophomore year, my mother told me, when my girlfriend picked me up in black boots that indicated dancing was the preferred evening activity, I would someday be a thirty six year old mother of three telling her husband to babysit for the...

Sometimes -- or often, honestly -- I possess no profound wisdom or witty piece of advice or Motivational Monday thoughts on a Thursday, but I can almost always recognize what brings me joy. And I understand the importance of being happy even for a moment. Last week the iteration of my happiness was a trip to Target. At the time, I thought my life must truly lack meaning if the greatest thing that happens to me in a day is an afternoon Target run, but now, with a little distance from the moment, I assess the situation quite differently. Why can't a visit to a red and white box store whose canine symbol I've always found a bit odd and goofy (as he's supposed to be, probably) be a highlight? If wandering the aisles meditatively -- except for that moment when the screaming little boy in the frozen vegetable aisle reminded me of times I had to abandon my own cart and leave the store with an angry toddler in arms -- somehow brought me joy, why should I disparage the experi...