It's Mountain Day!

17 October 2012

I attended Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, which has a wonderful annual tradition, Mountain Day. When Mountain Day is declared, everyone at the school gets the day off. Today is Mountain Day. Thanks to Facebook, I knew it the minute I got up and checked my computer. Three years ago, I blogged about Mountain Day. I’ve decided to re-run that post, since it’s as relevant today as it was then.

Today is Mountain Day at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. I’m a proud member of the class of 1984 of Mount Holyoke, an august institution steeped in tradition. One of my favorite MHC traditions is Mountain Day, which first began in 1838. Once a year, on a beautiful fall day the early-morning pealing of the clock tower’s bells for five minutes let students know they are freed of academic obligations for the day. They’re encouraged to climb Mount Holyoke (which is really more of a hill than a mountain, says a person who never bothered to climb it).

It’s an exhilarating thing to be given the day off and told to go have fun. Part of the joy of it is not knowing in advance what day will be selected.

Here’s a photo of the Mount Holyoke campus on a beautiful fall day. You gotta love autumn in New England.

For the last 25 years, I’ve meant to give myself my own personal Mountain Day. I rarely have the ability to spontaneously take off the school’s Mountain Day. (The college is kind enough to email alumnae to let them know when it’s Mountain Day.) Today, for example, I have stuff I have to do because I’m leaving town in the morning. But most of those things are fun errands like shopping and a haircut. I do have a phone meeting with my Declutter Happy Hour partner Shannon Wilkinson, but that will be fun—conversations with Shannon always are.

So here’s what I’m going to do. I can’t free myself of all obligations for the day. But I can imbue the day with a happy spirit of enjoying life, which is really the essence of Mountain Day. I’ll think of all my tasks as happy opportunities, rather than obligations (which they really are).

Now here’s the question I have to ask myself: if I can do that today, why can’t I do it every day?

I think I’ll make an “Every Day Is Mountain Day!” sign for my inspiration board and see what it does for my spirits (and my day).

How about you: can you treat today (or any day) like Mountain Day?

Tagged with: attitude, mount holyoke college