Issue No. 5: An Evening In My Home
Spend an evening at home with us.
You’re invited to an evening at my place today :)
I thought to try something different this month and one of the things that I felt could be interesting would be to do a walkthrough of a typical evening in our home. What’s dinner time like, what do we do to relax, nightly rituals, stuff like that, so let’s spend the evening together.
Over the years, I’ve realized how much wisdom these hours of the day hold and so slowly & gradually, I’ve tried to create a space in this window of time, between end-of-work and going to bed, where I’m not just resigning after a long day, but consciously spending time nourishing and preparing my mind, body, soul, all of it, for a fresh start tomorrow. It’s not only made me look forward to my evenings as that special time where I rest, nurture & restore myself but also understand how important it is to have personal time for you, that you don’t write off as something only for the weekends, but that’s a part of your everyday life & choices.
Tonight, as I’m writing this, it’s lightly raining outside. The wind is gently moving around the house. The lights are low, the warm glow from the lamps feels very comforting, and I’m all settled in on my couch, and right now I’m going to go back a few hours to 5 pm today.
Before I start though, I do want to say that we have access to a lot of routines and people’s schedules in today’s times and I’m absolutely a big believer in how they help enhance your life. But no routine functions perfectly every day, and much like nature, us humans too work best with organic rhythms, vs rigid programs. Whatever I’m sharing today, is what we do typically, not all the time. I also hope this doesn’t come across as preachy, because that is not my intent, I only wish to share things that have genuinely improved the quality of my life. Just wanted to add that, and now I think we can begin.
5 PM: Switch Off From Work, Dinner Preps
So 5 pm is the time when it feels like, apart from us, even our house starts stretching and waking up after those quietly busy end-of-the-day work hours. I remember my father used to come back home around the same time when we were kids, and we’d all just regroup, the walls would start buzzing, chatter would start filling up the rooms. And even though it’s just the two of us now, it feels like that same energy, raunaq, that starts breathing back into our home as Nabeel and I wrap up work and start catching up, talking about plans for the night.
We started strength training last year and we go for our sessions a couple of times a week around this time, but it was an off day today, so I went straight to dinner preps. We make our meal plan and do the groceries over the weekend typically,