Neglected herbs
One of my favorite possessions is 172 things to do in order to increase your level of accomplishment, a tiny booklet I picked up in The Regional Assembly of Text, the most charming shop in all of Vancouver. It sits on my coffee table and I flip through it whenever I’m feeling restless. Here are some examples of things to do:
- Count all the pillows and cushions in your living room
- Eat that many nuts the following day
- Figure out how many hours per week your corner store is closed for
- Use one of your neglected herbs
It is hard for me to completely silence the voice in my head that says I need to spend my time optimizing for accomplishment. One of the best ways I’ve found of doing this, though, is traveling. It is much easier for me to spend days without opening my laptop when I am not in Seattle.
(Perhaps this is a little fallacious: there’s a certain cachet that travel affords you, in letting you employ phrases like the most charming shop in all of Vancouver.)
I’m on an airplane back from D.C. as I write this, having spent two days without opening my laptop. Back to Seattle for a day, and then onto Paris for a week or so.
It’s going to be our first time in Paris, and we have plans not to make plans: sure, there are the things we know we must do, like the Louvre and the catacombs and Versailles. But we want it to be a relaxing trip: it’s been a hectic few months, and this week is meant to be as much about peace as about discovery.
I’m honest enough with myself that there will be some downtime, and in that downtime I’ll probably spend some time working on Buttondown or doing some freelance work or just puttering away on the internet.
But my goal is to spend the entire trip without writing a to-do list. We’ve got a couple guidebooks and Google Maps and some books (hers are paperback, mine are on Kindle). We like coffee and cafés and wine and bikes. If that’s not enough to find a little temporary peace in a different world, then I’m not sure what would be.
Happy Sunday
I hope you spend the next flight you’re on sitting behind someone who doesn’t lean their chair back.