a love letter to sundays
happy sunday, dear reader
i can vividly recall a time when sundays were the day i dreaded most. the impending doom of the upcoming week would settle over my head like a swollen, slate-coloured cloud. sunday meant the sweet bliss of the weekend would soon be in the rear view behind me, quicker than it came.
the etymology of the word sunday is as follows:
during the 4th century AD, emperor constantine of the roman empire established the seven-day week we’ve continued to use ever since, naming each day after one of seven key celestial bodies. sunday, dubbed dies solis (‘day of the sun’ in latin) after the god sol, became the first day of the week. in germanic mythology, sól was believed to be a sun-carrying goddess, who rode a chariot across the sky.
despite sól’s bitter fate (sadly, she was eventually swallowed by a wolf), i envision her lighting the way to a new beginning, a new week.
while dreary, drizzly sundays bring me an unparalleled sense of comfort—and i love them the most—i cannot deny that a sunlit sunday just seems to make sense. the burst of light a wakeup call to your senses to move, to clean, to get your shit together, if you’re up for it.
from calendar to calendar, you’ll find that some consider sunday the first day of the week, and others the last. a day of rest before the reset, or the first day of the reset, if you will. in recent years, i’ve made peace with sundays. enjoy them, even. dually a day for restructuring the week ahead and basking in slowness and the mundane, sundays are what you make of them.
as one so often does to maximize the enjoyment of life’s little pleasures, you must romanticize the day.
open your windows for wafts of fresh air. allow the low hum of background music to serve as your sunday soundtrack. indulge in a breakfast you wouldn’t otherwise have the time (or frankly, the willpower) to prepare during the work week. flip through pages of your current read. let the familiar aroma of your favourite candles fill your space.
then, set the pace for a new week.
i’ve heard several variations of the mantras “action cures anxiety” and “the best way to ease an anxious mind is to be prepared,” tossed around the wellness and productivity spheres, and truer words couldn’t be said in relation to the ways sundays serve me. with fresh bed sheets you can hardly wait to slip into at night lightly spritzed with sleep-inducing sprays, an everything shower under your belt, a matching pajama set laid out, and a planner full of the upcoming tasks noted and accounted for, the weight of the week ahead slips off like the shedding of skin.
while i understand the root of sunday scaries (we’ve all been there), i loathe the term. and i implore you to reframe your outlook on sundays.
open the windows; let the light in; play the music; set the intentions.
x L
love<3