Making Time for the "Nothing Things"

Lately life has been a bubbling stream of busyness and I have been finding myself needing a bit more space and always reaching and searching for more time in the day so I can make an attempt to do "nothing things". 

There are seasons in my life when this is not possible and for me this is the season. Though at the moment I am trying to think if there ever was a season where I had any significant stretches of time where I did nothing and well, nothing comes to mind.

How do I change this for myself? What needs to be done right now so I can have that precious time of doing "nothing things." First let me elaborate a bit more on the things I consider "nothing things" because really they are very much something as they feed my soul and rejuvenate and invigorate my spirits.

As an introvert, the "nothing things" must be done alone. If you are an introvert, you know very well why. The "nothing things" to are those couple of hours (how blissful) where I know I won't be interrupted, where my phone isn't going to signal that I have 40 unread notifications, someone doesn't need me to answer anything, approve anything, clarify anything, assuage a situation, or explain anything. The "nothing things" is when I am quietly going about and it is when the days, hours, and minutes of the week can leave my mind and I can make room for thoughts that feed me. Ideally the nothing things are reading a book, perusing old beloved magazines for inspiration, sewing, quilting, embroidery, painting, gardening, writing, going for walks in silence, and truly also doing nothing other than sitting out doors with the warmth of the sun on my face and feeling a cool breeze against my skin.

Lately, all I've had time to do is a bit of gardening a couple hours during the weekends and I am so gleeful to slip into my garden boots and my garden gloves and get to work in my garden. But inevitably the house must be cleaned, the laundry has to be caught up with, groceries have to be done, obligations with friends and family must be met, and so the sweet simple hours of doing the "nothing things" are again clouded over with everything else.

Time is so very precious. As I get older, this little known truth becomes more and more apparent to me and I am finding that I am guarding my time a bit more and craving even more intentionality with how I am choosing to spend my precious time. I am working on being less apologetic about my time and I think as busy women in the world we live in where we are inundated with so many things all the once, we find ourselves apologizing and over explaining how we spend our time. I think I'm in a good place of learning or at the very least being aware of how much I need the time to do the "nothing things." Finding the actual time is another work in progress all together.