Sit a Spell

I was originally planning to include this article in the Saturday Six tomorrow, but it kind of took on a life of its own with my week, so I'll link to it here instead. This past weekend, I happened upon this article about recovering the lost art of porch sitting. (It's a thought-provoking read, so hop over and check it out.)

A couple of years ago, I read a book called Next Door as it is in Heaven, which talked about how neighborhoods are very different from what they used to be "in days of yore." The authors talked about how people used to know everyone in their neighborhoods, because they used to work close to home, go to church near their house, and sit on their porches because it was more comfortable than being inside. This was before air conditioning, you know.

But now we commute everywhere and have central air and lots of things stored on our DVR, so we don't know our neighbors and we don't sit outside.

And that brings me full circle to the article I read last weekend. What if we did just what it suggests? What if we determined we were going to recover the lost art of porch sitting? (Do you even have a porch? The article points out that a lot of newly constructed homes have a prominent garage and little to no porch.}

When Ryan and I lived in Marion, our house had a big front porch that ran the span of the house. But the neighborhood wasn't entirely conducive to front porch dwelling, so we didn't. We also had a nice back patio - and our beloved pirogi - and we spent quite a bit of time in our backyard if the weather permitted. We ate many meals out there and would sometimes hang out in the hammock or at the fire pit. It was a secluded backyard and we really loved it.

When we moved to our current house, the front porch was actually one of our favorite things. It was so cute!! But we found we didn't sit out there very often, because we didn't have comfortable furniture.

So we bought some.

And then we didn't sit out there very much because there was a railing that obstructed our view. Sitting out there was kind of like sitting in a crib.

So we took down the railing.

And then we still didn't sit out there.

To be fair, part of it was because we've had some pretty buggy weather over the last few months. Tons of mosquitoes, and I'm their lunch. But right now, it's not terribly buggy outside, and I decided it was time to try out porch sitting.

My goal this week was to go out there at least 20 minutes a day and read. Or sit. Or nap. Or watch cars speed down the road.

So there was Monday:

Followed by Tuesday:

And Wednesday:

And Thursday:

And I fully plan to be out there again today: reading, drinking coffee, hanging with Pheebs.

I really like it out there. It pulls me away from work for a minute. I get to sit and read, or listen to birds and the breeze. I get to pray. I get to zone out. And after a few minutes, I'm ready to stand up and tackle the chore list again. I've rested. I've enjoyed. I've stepped aside. I can go back, refreshed and regrouped.

There's something to it, this sitting a spell. I like it.