People

Early Spring in the Arboretum

I try to balance the weekends when I don't have the kids -- or at least don't have them both nights -- with the right mix of alone time and time with friends. I haven't felt much like practicing yoga alone lately, and the studio where I've been practicing is in transition, so I booked a couple of classes at another studio after my kids left today just to kind of bookend the alone time. I also got to spend a chunk of time today with a dear friend, hiking in the woods, which was lovely.

But still, after 6 hours out and about on my bike, when I got home, all I wanted to do was crawl in bed and watch TV. So I did. And that's one of the things I love about this phase of my life -- the freedom, in those moments, to do whatever I want. But when I say I love that, I mean to the degree that you can love the feeling of self-indulgent unproductive time -- there's a place for it in our lives, sure, but it doesn't feel purely good.

Eventually my viewing pleasure turned to an old vice: Glee. And that's where my song choice comes from today. From there, as well as from the fact that I'm with Barbra on this one:

People
People who need people
Are the luckiest people in the world,
We're children, needing other children
And yet letting our grown-up pride
Hide all the need inside,
Acting more like children
Than children.
Lovers are very special people,
They're the luckiest people
In the world.
With one person, one very special person
A feeling deep in your soul
Says you were half,
Now you're whole.
No more hunger and thirst
But first be a person
Who needs people.
People who need people
Are the luckiest people
In the world!

Being alone has its advantages. No doubt about it. But it's not how I want to live the bulk of my life, and neither is hiding from the world (even if it's just my own inner life) through the use of electronics...