How To Become Refreshed

At the beginning of summer, our minister gave out a form titled, “How I find my sacred balance”, to fill in and bring back in September. We are to describe how we use the summer to refresh ourselves, to become rejuvenated. I have never found the summers to be refreshing. There is no schedule, for one thing, and I have always thrived on a schedule, more so as I grow older. For most of my life, the year began in September because school began then. Now that my nest is empty and my husband is retired, there is no beginning, no ending. Much of the time I feel as if someone has taken a wooden spoon, stuck it in my brain, and stirred energetically. I used to be rejuvenated by writing, always in the morning, from 9 to 12, when the kids would be in school and even after they left home. Now I don’t have anything that compels me. Every once in a while, depressed, I make out a vigorous schedule, type it out in a large font, post it in several places -- and don’t follow it.