Day of Compassion - Take 2

So, I totally felt like I failed on Compassion Day so I tried it again on Sunday. On Thursday I was fortunate enough to enjoy a tour of a sorority and a very wonderful, positive, fun, inspiring visit and lunch with Corky, her daughter and friend (former students I adore), and Corky’s mom. After that, I wasn’t sure what I should do to kill time until the play. Not feeling overly ambitious or motivated, I took a drive past Mtn. View Park, wondering which of my students might live in some of the places I pasted (admittedly trying to read names on mailboxes). Being able to hardly keep my eyes open, I found some shade in the park area and proceeded to read a “fun, silly, trashy” type book because I felt like it, then I’d doze, then I’d read, then I’d doze…next thing I knew it was almost 7 pm! So I felt like I was indulgent with myself though not necessarily “compassionate”.

Sunday, I was determined to give it another shot. I was camping with some friends and their older family members and it was pack up and go home day as they’d been there for over a week and me two glorious nights. They put a lot into setting up camp for people to come and go throughout the week and some of them don’t get around too well anymore, so I spent the morning helping them clean, pack, and store camping gear. I really wanted to come home, but my friend and her daughter wanted to go out on the lake for awhile after we packed up. Admittedly, this did not take too much arm twisting since the water was like glass and the temperature was over 90. I waited in the boat while they went on shore to find their friends, and then took them to another dock to visit some friends. They wanted to head out about 12:30, which is not my favorite thing (sweating like a pig trying to trailer the boat, put the cover on, move stuff around) as I’d prefer to do it when it cools off. Knowing I’d be a bit slower pulling the boat on the windy mountain roads, I suggested they take their car and go ahead and take off.

When I got home, I listened to all my husband’s stories about his “man trip” and watched a movie he picked out without doing any eye rolling or providing sarcastic comments. I decided not to say anything to my son about whether or not he’d done anything around the house in my absence. I avoided killing bugs (except the ones that splatted on my windshield) or anything else though I wasn’t too happy about the mess some geese left on the dock (have to admit I made a comment about maybe someone should camp on the dock with a gun one night to get them to quit crapping all over it, but caught myself before I actually hatched a well thought out revenge on the damn geese – oops, I mean beautiful creatures who share the earth). I told myself I could be lazy after I unpacked from camping, I read more of my trashy, fun, makes me laugh, stupid book and allowed myself to just relax without guilt. All in all, I think I did much better on Sunday but realize I have a llllllooooonnnnnggggg ways to go because I find myself thinking “dumb ass” way too often.