You are allowed sixty seconds of weather

Sit with how odd that sounds before you dismiss it.

Yesterday we noticed that the season has become logistics. Today we put you in it for sixty seconds.

Here is your invitation. Once today, go outside and stand there for one minute with no purpose whatsoever.

Not a walk, which is exercise. Not the bins, which is an errand. Not the car, which is transit.

Standing. Outside. For one minute.

The back step is fine. The end of the driveway is fine. Whatever door is nearest to wherever you are when you read this.

While you are there, do one thing: notice the temperature on your face and what the light is doing. That is the entire content of the exercise.

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I know exactly what will happen at about second twenty. You will feel the strong pull to make it useful.

You will think of something you could do while out there, or someone you could call, or you will simply go back in because standing still outdoors feels faintly ridiculous.

Stay the full minute. The pointlessness is not a flaw in the invitation, it is the active ingredient. It is the standing version of going with no destination. The aimlessness is the whole point.

Because everything you do outside currently has a reason attached, and a season experienced entirely through errands is a season you are not actually in.

One minute of aimless weather. That is today, and it costs you nothing but the discomfort of doing something with no justification.

Today you have permission to stand outside for one minute accomplishing absolutely nothing.

Today, notice the pull to make the minute useful. It will arrive fast. Notice it and stay put.

See you tomorrow.

If someone came to mind while you were reading this, send her these letters. The Permission Slips are yours when she stays.