Day 19: The Beauty Of Doing Nothing

The Italian people have a beautiful saying, "Il dolce far neinte": The sweetness of doing nothing. Today I tasted this sweetness and enjoyed it to my heart's content. My second week in Israel was filled with learning, studying, traveling, exploring, feasting, and so many other adventures, that it was nice to take advantage of the "day of rest" to actually...rest! Novel concept :-) Since each and every night my ability to sleep varies, I gave in to my exhaustion and turned off all of my alarms. I figured that if my body would let me sleep in I wasn't going to argue. Around 10:30 I woke up from what felt like my first really decent night sleep, and had the whole day to spend at my leisure.

Sometimes when you have nothing to do you have the time to reflect on so many different things. These past two weeks have been a blur of craziness in getting my new life settled, and now that I finally feel rooted here, thoughts have rushed over me like the waves that I love to watch when I go to the sea. It is funny how moving to a new place, especially in a new and foreign country, leaves some voids in a person; a lack of familiarity, a lack of friends, a lack of family, and so on. But what I am finding to be a great part about starting a new life, is the excitement of the unknown. I have only a few friends here which means I have a whole country full of people to forge new friendships; I have no immediate family here so I have a whole country to find people to fill a familial void; I have no boyfriend or love here so I have a whole country to find romance in (and I'm so lucky it is a country filled with so many good looking people :-D). Though a large part of my heart has always been and will always be at home, I am excited to see what it will open itself up to on this side of the world. All of these things, while being a bit scary, are so exciting, and it makes me so excited for all of the amazing possibilities that will soon become realities for me.

In the afternoon I attempted to do some laundry but found that all the machines were taken and I really didn't want to wait. It was such a beautiful day out, however, that I couldn't go back inside so soon. I sat outside for a little while with some music playing and just enjoyed the day. When the heat started taking it's tole, I decided it was time to go back inside. Once I got to my room I decided to play the hopeless romantic and watch The Notebook; I figured if anything I could use a good cry (yes I know... I'm such a girl). While I was waiting for the movie to load I figured I would study a little Arabic, which turned into researching arabic phrases, which turned into finding this amazing Arabic script picture that I have decided to make my next tattoo (whenever I decide to get another one). The script is pictured above and it is the Arabic words for "peace" and "love" intertwined to make a dove of peace (very fitting with the general theme of my other tattoos; well minus the CAL). It was a great find, and so fitting for me! After the movie and inevitable cry session, it was time for some dinner, then homework, and then some last minute studying.

Now the day has come to an end and I look back on it thinking that I am very lucky to be the kind of person that I am. Some people would feel lonely spending the whole day by themselves, but I felt appreciative that I was beholden to no one and just had time to enjoy the simple things on my own. In my opinion, you find out the most about yourself when you are alone, and the more time you spend getting to know yourself, the more you grow and mature on your own terms; free from the influences of what others think or want, and that is very important in terms of truly becoming secure in your own skin. So there you have it, a day spent doing very little, and completely on my own, turned into quite a day after all! Fancy that :-)

Until tomorrow then!
Jordana Simone