Unemployed and happy about it

You know what? Being unemployed is really a godsend. 

That is, of course, if you hated your last job, if you are receiving well-deserved employment insurance, and if you have another income to rely on.

Everyone is saying: enjoy it while it lasts. How often does a vacation like this happen? Paid for and effortless and long?

So I decided: making breakfasts each morning was all nice and fun, but didn't truly make me feel free and liberated. I decided to start doing all those things I could never find the time for.

I started today.

I sat on a boulder at the shoreline, with the Lake Ontario waves swishing at my feet. There was no wind. No people. No noise other than seagulls chasing each other.

Sun was sparkling in the curtains of icicles on curvaceous branches of driftwood. Have you ever seen curtains like this? Have you ever looked, for that matter? Have you ever had the time to just sit still and enjoy the world around?

I sat there, wondering.

Why do swans swim around with their wings raised? What exactly are they eating at the bottom of the March-freezing lake (at least I realized why they have those long, looooong necks)? How do those icicles appear - were there really big waves recently? Did it rain? Or is it just the humidity? When will the safeguards return to their posts? Are you allowed to canoe there? Were these pebbles and sand brought here for decoration purposes, or are they all natural? When does this huge Sunnyside swimming pool open? Is diving allowed?..

I read a book for a while. A few people passed by. Smiling, saying hello.

I felt so utterly happy and peaceful.

Really, when else will I be able to sit like this on the seashore with a book, in the sun, listening to the birds - on a weekday?..