Yes

Yes to lazy Sunday afternoons where I put off a few things on the to-do list until tomorrow. They’ll still be there waiting for me, and there will always be more items on the to-do list no matter how many things I cross off, so why not just relax a while? Even God rested on the seventh day, so perhaps a little Sabbath would be good for me, too.

Yes to staying in bed just 5 minutes longer, tucking the just watched sheets like a comforting cocoon around my head, snuggling my face into the fluffy down of my familiar pillow that smells distinctly like me.

Yes to baking banana bread with the overripe bananas hanging from their hook that have been calling your name as the bright yellow skins slowly speckled and then gradually grew completely brown. There’s not much else you can do with almost rotten bananas, so why not? Be sure to mix in extra chocolate chips and savor a thick slick, still over-warm when you’re done.

Yes to kicking back with a good friend on a Friday night, watching your favorite guilty pleasure movie. The one you’ve practically memorized line by line, yet it makes you laugh every single time, and never seems to get old.

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Yes to accepting the offer of help from a neighbor to unload your trunk full of groceries, even though you could manage it along (in multiple laborious trips). Because sometimes it’s nice to lighten your load a bit to a friendly outstretched hand.

Yes to prioritizing me sometimes, to holding strong to those personal boundaries I’ve worked so hard to establish over the years. I’ve built them up, painstakingly with gentle guidance and encouragement from those far wiser than I. I’ve built them up after a long, long time when “yes” was all I could ever say in response to constant requests for my help and participation. I’ve built them up, brick by brick, like a wall around my home, ivy beginning to creep up the sides, giving it “character.” And I have a gate, a lovely white wooden gate, that empowers me, allows me to decide who enters into my garden. These boundaries afford me freedom, control, and the ability to still say “no” when I need to.