Slow down

It’s Friday, the cusp of the month’s extra day, and my mind is going a mile a minute. I have things to do, and I feel a bit jittery, even though I’m just now sipping the morning’s caffeine.

So I take a deep breath. Uncross my legs to put my feet on the floor, and take another one.

It’s been a busy couple of months between travel and work, and though I set out to create more balance during this time, I’m not sure I’ve succeeded. My writing has slowed down, reading has all but stopped, I’ve eaten more take-out than I wanted to, my whole house is begging for a thorough spring cleaning. Even just thinking of that makes my shoulders scrunch up towards my ears; I take another breath.

I know I talk a lot about mindfulness here; sometimes I become self-conscious at how many of my blog posts are just about looking at the ocean, or the sunset, or the trees. Yet I suppose that I’ve come to be a believer in it. I’m not good at sitting meditation, or a regular practice, but I do get to bring mindfulness into my work and as a consequence, I wind up doing it often as well. More than that, though, there’s something about the awareness of the world’s beauty that has brought me, and continues to bring me, a significant measure of peace in my life. No matter what is happening, there is something miraculous nearby.

Last weekend, on the evening flight home from DC, I watched the sunset for more than an hour as I headed west. And the next day, I counted more than 100 California poppies on a walk near my ocean. There is so so much to do, so much calling out for attention, but this weekend, I hope that slowing down is on the agenda. Slowing down, loving what we have, and being aware of the magic this world continually offers up for the taking seems surely a recipe for something wonderful, at least as far as I can tell.