Early Morning Orbs at the Ziggurat
If we are to live in joy and in accomplishment, we must release our cells from self-imposed restrictions so they can sense, interpret and move us with the changing times. We need to be ready to respond and to use our experiences to our advantage. Gregge Tiffen (What You Should Get From Education - 2007
It’s ‘back to school’ week here in the Sangres. This morning’s quote provided me with the ‘back to school’ jolt I needed to recognize that I’d fallen into a pattern of rote response to daily events. No joy. No awareness of using those events to my advantage.
Fortunately ‘back to school’ didn’t require pre-school shopping and scurrying around (plenty of the later just tending to life). I simply needed to STOP, breathe, recognize and reset. I stopped early yesterday, putting my head on the pillow before darkness fell. I wasn’t aware just what that stopping would bring, and after a few deep breaths of gratitude, I was fast asleep.
It was only when I hit the books this morning for the spark of inspiration to kick off this week’s post that I took the time to recognize (and acknowledge) that I was slogging through events each day. I was ‘getting things done’ and in the doing I was more focused on what needed to be done next than on the activity at hand.
I wasn’t miserable, but I definitely felt stressed. And, where there is stress, there is no joy and little, if any true accomplishment. Yes, tasks get done, but without the awareness needed for the experience to bring forth any wisdom. Unknowingly, I’d stepped back into some old ways, rotely responding to Luke’s needs, my garden’s call to ‘come harvest’, preparing meals, running my B&B, attending a county commissioner’s meeting, and a host of other ‘to dos’. The quote above woke me up to that awareness with the recognition that I was moving through life with a sense of dread.
So this day (and probably several that follow) is dedicated to resetting and getting me back in tune. I started on our morning walk, putting my attention on feeling the cool air, smelling the freshness, and hearing the quiet of early morning in this beautiful place. I set aside the ‘to do’ list and stayed present, allowing the beauty of the day to envelope me. I returned home, interacted with a departing guest, cared for Luke and then took myself out on the deck with a nourishing bowl of fruit and cup of tea.
I took some time to reflect on this process of ‘resetting’ and outlined what I wanted to commit to in this reset:
· Take time as each task is complete to recognize the accomplishment.
· Step into each task with joy and gratitude.
· Keep my attention on the task at hand, not ‘what’s next’.
· Take care of me – rest and nourishment when I need them (not when I have time for them).
I’m clear that the return to my old ways of moving through each day put me out of sync with the current patterns of the Universe and of me. Perhaps that’s true on such a broad scale that the world is in ever increasing chaos. What if we each checked our settings regularly to ensure that we are in tune? What kind of world would we create if we simply took time to stop, breathe, recognize, and reset?
The Tree of Joy and Wisdom!