My Perfect Day


Inspirational the perfect day visionary

Morning Routine

Breakfast is prepared on a woodstove, with cinders from the night before, cooked on a cast iron skillet. The kitchen is cozy, but tidy and gets plenty of light from the large east-facing window. The smells of frying eggs and bacon lure my son and daughter, who are both somewhere around 8 and 10 years old. Hugs are exchanged and then both children head off to the garden to collect berries. My wife comes in a few minutes later and helps finish up breakfast, which ultimately consists of fruit (grown in the garden), yogurt (made from the goats' milk), bacon from a farmers nearby, eggs from our hens, and coffee from South American coffee beans (ha, you thought those would be local too...I want this to be at least somewhat realistic).

We all sit and eat breakfast as a family, talking about our plans for the day and sorting out our various schedules. After breakfast, we clean up and the kids head off to school, accompanied by the dog, a large, slightly overprotective shepherd breed. While our home is fairly isolated, it's still walking distance from the bus stop. The dog waits there for the bus with the kids and then comes home when they leave.

In the meantime, Wife and I have some...ahem, private time to ourselves (hey, it's my perfect day). But the morning doesn't last forever, and we both have work to do, she on her very important, world-changing humanitarian work, and me on my trivial book with its small but dedicated following of progressive academics. Actually, I'm a globally best-selling fiction and philosophy author whose ideas have redefined the way people live and work in our fast-paced, technologically charged world. Wife's work takes her to a nearby city, reached via high-speed electromagnetic levitation (MagLEV) train. She bikes to the station in town, leaving me at home with the dog and the goats, and my book.

Afternoon Writing and Lunch of Fished Trout

I sit down at my desk and start to write/type (I don't know yet if I have a computer or not, or if I use it to write, or even whether there is much electricity at my house. Electronics would be minimal, I know that much). I write for a few hours, going slow and enjoying the process of putting words to page and the solitude on this quiet day (normally I'm in town or travelling to meet various persons). Around lunchtime, I decide to hike down to the local stream to catch something to eat. Dog accompanies, but knows the drill and sits quietly while I catch a trout, gut it, and bring it home to be pan fried in butter from our goats milk (or maybe just a cow from down the road...or maybe we have a cow or two), served with tasty kale from the garden.

I work on the book for another few hours, then tend to the garden, animals, and other errands around the house. I of course built the house (with some help from the neighbors and in partnership with Wife), so I know all its quirks and how to treat them. I enjoy getting my hands dirty, chop some wood, heft hefty things, generally be manly around the house. It's possible my shirt is off, just because I enjoy feeling the air on my skin and just enjoy a natural state of being.

A quick jaunt into town on my bike to pick up various items, chat with everyone and catch up on the local news, check my e-mail at the library (because while I may have electricity at home I certainly don't have internet...or maybe I do...this is a tough one, but I do want to patronize libraries more as a center for community intellectual involvement). Since I'm in town, I pick up the kids and we walk home together, sharing the stories of the day.

Homework and Working Out, A Festival

When we get home, Dog is waiting anxiously and runs to jump up on us and play. While the kids do their homework, I get in some exercise. Since the weather is nice, I move my gymnastic rings out to a tree and run through some routines, going all gymnastic and primal, hefting stones, logs, and myself, running, jumping, climbing, and rehearsing various combinations of ancient martial arts and yoga. I have a large shed with some barbell stuff, but today I stick to the natural order.

When I get home, Wife is waiting for me and dinner is ready to be eaten. We eat heartily around a table, sharing stories about Wife's adventure in the big city. Dinner is delicious. I don't know what it is, because I don't make it, but I'm sure it's delicious and healthy. And afterwards, we all load up the wagon, hitch up the horses (oh yes, we have horses, or maybe ponies) and ride into town to attend a community festival celebrating the town's founding. Kids run around playing, adults talk about plans for expanding the town center and argue about the merits of adding more outlying parking lots and expanding the bicycle rental service (cars are not allowed in the main town). Generally, it's a great party. There are also homebaked pies and locally brewed wines and beers. I sample the treats, as this is a special occasion, and enjoy them even more as I rarely partake of such delicacies.

It's dark before we leave, and we return to a dark house. While Wife goes inside to light a few candles, I grab a lantern and put the animals to bed. It's dim and quiet at night. We spend some time unwinding while sitting around the fire. I work on a new song I'm learning on guitar. Wife reads to the children. The dark slowly seeps into our heads and the kids start dozing off, so we tuck them in. And then it's just us and...well I did say it was my perfect day, so I end up staying up just a tad later than I'd like. I fall asleep without a hitch and sleep soundly, holding my Wife in my arms, surrounded by my family, and connected to a vibrant, involved community in tune with its environment.

So, that's what I'd like my life to look like in ten years or so...how can I make it happen? What steps can I start taking today to start moving in the right direction?

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