This morning I slept in - like really slept in.

I was supposed to be up at 6:30am for a variety of reasons - time to do yoga before work started, a long to do list, prayer at 9am, breakfast for us, a walk and ball time for the dogs before the work day began, breakfast for them as well. And instead I slept.

Jason starts his day early - about 5:30am with a strict yoga and meditation practice that he rarely misses. He is very disciplined - a trait I admire but don’t always demonstrate. He came to wake me up at 6:30am and I was having such a good sleep that I asked to stay in bed for awhile longer. I think it had something to do with the clean sheets we had just put on the bed. The shower I took yesterday. The lightness of the quilt that we had switched out with the old heavy one. It just felt so good to sleep -and so I gave myself permission - closed my eyes and went back to sleep for another 2 hours.

A few days ago I had snapped a picture of Brigid on the grass. We are currently in a campground that is not strict about having dogs on lead and our dogs are in heaven. They are not bolters so we don’t need to worry about them taking off, but they do like to push the boundaries - especially Brigid.

Since they are so big we like to give them some boundaries. They might not be bolters but we have noticed that people have a tendency to freak out when they see how big they are. And they do like to give a lazy bark when someone walks by - never even lifting their head off the ground - but unsuspecting passerby’s tend to get a little scared. So we set up parameters.

On one side we have the camper, then we pull the truck up close to that. Across from the camper is the picnic table and next to that our screen room, which leaves a few gaps that need to be filled in. We have started stretching the large camp chairs out as the final edge to our campground “fence”. The dogs know that they are not supposed to go beyond any of these boundaries - no matter how permeable the gaps are - and they would never dream of walking around it or going on the other side without permission. But that doesn’t mean they don’t push the boundaries - just a little.

This particular day Brigid really wanted to be on the other side of the chairs but we weren’t budging. So she finally laid down with a big dramatic sigh. And then she slowly stretched out, inching closer and closer to the chair - until her upper body was well tucked underneath. Not exactly over the boundary but pretty darn close.

This morning as I lay there snuggled up in my covers I thought about all the things that I needed to be up and ready for. All the reasons why I shouldn’t be lounging about in bed on a Tuesday morning. And then I remembered Brigid under that chair. And how content she became when she finally got herself pushed under that chair - not exactly breaking the rules but still giving herself permission to go right up to the very edge. And I realized I sort of felt the same way.

The responsible thing to do was to get up and get going. But I needed to push the edge a little bit. To stay in bed a bit longer than was really sensible. And it felt so darn good.

One of the interesting things that I am learning to embrace on this new adventure is what it feels like to let go of rules. The many expectations under which we live our lives.

We all have them - the rules that guide our days. Some are imposed on us from the outside - by our jobs, by our extended responsibilities - but there are lots more that we place on ourselves. One for me has always been that you get up early and get going with your day - you don’t laze about - but why?

What if I am more productive later? What if the complete opposite happened when I slept in?

What if I gave myself permission to sleep in a couple of times a week and just experimented with how that impacted my days? What if I let go of other expected norms that I have about how I am supposed to behave and gave myself permission to toss them out the window?

I am imagining what it might look like to push the boundaries just a bit each day like Brigid. I already hear my contented sigh just imagining the possibilities.