life is flowing

I have a new trick for centering my wandering mind.

When I start pondering and dreaming my life away, thinking of the past or the future too intensely, I look around me and say to myself...

"this is it, sweetie. it's happening. right now.

this is life, too. be here.

life is flowing; your presence is requested..."

Yesterday my company launched a great new feature on our site very early in the morning. I came into the office around 7am to cook breakfast for the guys who have been working so hard all these months, including many long nights and early mornings.  It was the perfect moment to practice being fully present; to engage all of my sleepy senses. I hummed along to the deep, soothing tracks on my Otis Redding Pandora station while cutting fruit; sneaking pieces of fresh watermelon and grapes, savoring their sweet and juicy flavors.  Taking in the smells of french toast on the griddle and sticky buns in the oven I sent waves of gratitude out for the abundance of food in our tiny kitchen--for the kind people I work for and with, for the independence this career has gifted me. And then for a variety of small blessings like the warmth of the water while I washed my hands and the speed at which my fingers were able to slice and dice, mix and pour.

It wasn't a particularly exhilarating morning. Nothing profound happened to me. My day continued as normal after our breakfast feast; phone calls, emails, errands. But it was good to practice being fully present in my surroundings. It yielded a calm and quiet heart for the rest of the day.

Because this is life, too. The small moments, the uneventful, count as life. And if you think about it, there are millions more of these kinds of moments than any other over the span of a lifetime. We might as well invest ourselves in them, bring them attention and care in the same way we do the moments of heightened emotions, big change or milestones.  Settling in fully, mindfully, to my morning of quiet cooking was life, too.

It's flowing with or without you, but your presence is requested.

Are you ready to show up?

Love and light,

Trish