Carrie Link

THE PRESENT OF PRESENCE

I'm a routine girl. Give me a routine and let me stick to it, and I'm a happy, happy girl. I'm out of my routine during this l-o-n-g winter break. Way out. So far out I can't see my routine from here. This happens every vacation and I fight it every time.

Historically.

This time I'm trying something new. I'm trying to detach from my routine, knowing it will be there waiting for me in seven (short!) days, and I'll be able to pick it back up and cloak myself in it soon enough. In the meantime there is a new routine to accept - the no routine, routine. The one where instead of doing laundry and emptying the dishwasher as my compulsive nature would so glory in, it has me playing Mario Kart on the Wii with Rojo before I've even had breakfast. It has me not making any plans so that I can go with the flow of the day as it unfolds, instead of forcing a clock on a day that has no sense of time. It has me walking by rooms that need cleaning, rugs that need shaking, gifts that need to be put away, and counters that need wiping. It has me walking away from what doesn't even matter in the scheme of things, and straight into the arms of what does.

Rojo looked at me yesterday after we'd been hanging together, spontaneously made the sign of the cross on his forehead, chest and shoulders while saying, "Cross my heart and never die, mother of Jesus."

I would have missed that if I'd been anywhere but right there.