Recreation

I think this is one of the most interesting subjects for everyone in general. What do we do to recreate? As a country boy I can think of a few things that serve as recreation to me but do they to everyone else? (See the Alan Jackson video here) For example, I love the mountains, I also love to glass the mountains for big game... my wife asks me what I'm doing and why I just sit and look at the mountains all the time. It's not that I'm just looking at the mountains but it's almost a game, I try and find the critters that have hunkered down on the hillsides. I know that this is probably not fun to everyone, in fact I know it's not but to me it's recreation.

Another quickly rising favorite of mine is working on cars. I got up early on Saturday morning to change the breaks in my wife's car... that was fun to me. I enjoy getting my hands dirty and accomplishing something. My brother in law on the other hand, would know a break pad from blinker fluid (that's a joke) and would rather pay someone to fix it for him.

The point is that we all need to find some things that are mental breaks for us in our daily lives. The science behind this is that as we go throughout the day doing the same thing we become less sensitive to the process whatever it is and eventually can fall into a lull that can either be depression or big mistakes. In Latin based languages the word most often used for recreation is diversion. This can mean fun, getting away, or literally diverting the mind. This brings up a valid point, it is all about diverting the mind to something that is in enjoyable and recharges the batteries so to speak.

Here are a couple of tried and true methods that country boys have been using for decades to make sure they have a little fun once in a while and recreate:

Have a recurring weekly activity planned. This can be anything from basketball in the mornings or evenings with some buddies and a local church or fishing with your kids after work during the week. This gives you the chance to have something to look forward to throughout the week that's always going to be there. It's important to have this fall back in case everything else gets tied up.

Have three or four fall back activities that you can do at the drop of a hat. It's important to just do something sometime. When I lived in my home town we had some rope and a piece of plywood and we would drab it behind the truck on a dirt road. It was quick, easy, and really fun. Now days it's a quick hike in the hills behind my house, glassing for animals, or some yard work. Anything to just get your mind off of things.

My personal favorite, let yourself have some fun. I love America, I love what we stand for, I love how we don't quit till the job gets done (think beyond wars). I will say this though, we over work ourselves and under reward ourselves. In Italy, France, and other European countries they get at least a month off a year in vacation and take all of it and more (in no way am I suggesting we become more like them, that's too much if you ask me, but they are a happy people). We need to let ourselves relax a bit more and enjoy life. That's why we are here anyway to have joy and live our lives. So don't feel guilty if you aren't staying up late every night to get that last spreadsheet done or you have to finish a report, take some time to recreate.

The country way is work really hard till the job is done, then sit back and enjoy what you've done and celebrate... till the next big thing comes up.