☕ Unofficial Update — What People Did During Recess

From: Unofficial Channels
To: Anyone Who Happens To Be Nearby
Subject: What People Apparently Did During Recess

The Department has returned from its two-week recess.

Laptops are reopening.

Calendars are filling again.

And, as people settle back into their usual routines, stories about the past two weeks have been travelling through kitchens, corridors and morning coffee conversations.

Unofficial Channels has been listening.

It appears that people slept.

A lot.

Some switched off their alarms and woke when their bodies decided morning had arrived.

Some got out of bed, had breakfast, looked at the clock and realised there was absolutely no reason they couldn’t go back to bed.

So they did.

There were afternoon naps.

Long ones.

The kind where you wake up, look at the light outside and need several seconds to establish what time of day it is.

There were movies in the middle of the afternoon.

Entire television series were watched from sofas.

Sometimes dinner was eaten there too.

There were slow mornings at cafés.

Some people went with friends.

Some went alone.

A coffee arrived.

Then perhaps breakfast.

A book was opened.

Three pages were read.

Then twenty minutes disappeared while watching people walk past the window.

Nobody hurried them along.

There were walks without destinations.

Trips to the park because the weather looked nice.

Long lunches that drifted quietly into afternoon.

Visits to places people had been meaning to visit for months.

There were days when people got dressed and went somewhere.

There were other days when leaving the house seemed unnecessarily ambitious.

Both kinds of days were good.

Some cooked.

Some ordered takeaway.

Some cleaned the house because suddenly they genuinely felt like doing it.

Others looked at the laundry and decided tomorrow remained a perfectly viable option.

People spent time with partners, children, friends, pets and themselves.

Books were started.

Cupboards were reorganised.

Gardens received attention.

Phones were put down.

Coffee was consumed while still hot.

And sometimes absolutely nothing happened.

Perhaps that was the nicest part.

After several days, people seemed to stop thinking about how much of their leave remained.

The days simply became days.

Morning arrived.

Something sounded nice.

So they did that.

Or nothing sounded particularly appealing.

So they did very little.

And slowly, without anybody scheduling it, people began to feel rested.

Now everyone is coming back.

There are meetings again.

Emails again.

School runs, deadlines, appointments, groceries and all the ordinary things that make up a full life.

But perhaps the recess has left behind a small reminder.

A day off does not always need a plan.

A coffee alone can be an outing.

An afternoon nap can be the afternoon.

A walk does not need a destination.

And sometimes a very good answer to—

What did you do today?

—is simply:

Not much.

—

Unofficial Channels
Department of Self Love

“Some of the best days off have almost nothing to report.”