I am grateful for waking up late today.
My morning routine was completely thrown off today. No sunrise. No writing. A quick plan for the day jotted down as children wander into my room. Independent work assigned in agendas for the morning. No time to collect myself. All of the kids are up and it’s time to get going.
As the kids eat breakfast, I quickly run out and make some photocopies for my Book of Hours workshop tomorrow night. It takes a little longer than I thought even with my patient husband beside me helping out. After photocopying, I realize that we have to do a quick grocery run. By the time we get home, the kids are chomping at the bit to go to our local farmer’s market and the library – our normal Tuesday morning activities.
It’s 10:00am and my head is spinning. I forgot what it’s like to wake up at the same time as all five of them. One of my daughters make a suggestion. She wants to repeat yesterday’s morning lesson before we go to the market. I have no doubt that she sensed my frenetic energy.
Yesterday I told the story of the birth of Siddhartha. Some of the children are beginning their studies on Buddhism while others are still just hanging out in India. The six of us began the day with yoga pretzels and then we all sat down for a guided meditation using this guided meditation app.
We did it again today. The yoga pretzel cards have fun partner poses that are my kids’ favourite poses. We giggled and laughed our way through them. After working up a bit of a sweat, we all took our seat for the meditation.
The two younger ones don’t last and they are excused to go to another room to hang out or feel free to just lie down quietly. But the older ones love it. I focus on my own breath. I become aware of my anxious feelings about the time, our late start, not getting in my writing in this morning. Anxious thoughts even creep their way into my mind about my workshop tomorrow. But each time, I bring it back to breath.
Be here now.
The longer I sit and watch everything pass, I start to realize that this all had to happen this way. I need to be here right now. This is the only place I should be. After I accepted this and let everything go, the day unfolded in the most unexpected and perfect way.
Can you appreciate the space between breaths as where you need to be?
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42 days of gratitude…giving thanks for it ALL.
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