An Easier Mindfulness
Today I am grateful for safe travels and for the time I spent away from work and my own home in recent days. I am also grateful for my husband Darcy.
Don't get me wrong. I love my own home and my family here, and I appreciate the job I have in many ways. But both my home and my job tend to come with to-do lists that never really end. If I am here in my house, I am always finding something to clean, put away, take care of. I can relax, but often only after I have gotten a number of things done, or sometimes early in the morning when I give myself time to meditate and take things slowly.
And then there's my job. My desk starts fairly clean each morning and can look quite cluttered and flustered by the day's end. I often feel the same way. There are emails, calls, students to see, lesson plans to finish, parent meetings, department work to attend to, and so on. I like the variety of my job and the fact that no two days are the same, but sometimes there could be less variety.
So when my son Sam and I traveled to Iowa for a couple days and spent time on our family's farm, it was an easier mindfulness that I found. I have to literally leave my job and house behind to leave behind some of the expectations I put on myself about each. This sunrise greeted me from the front porch of my mom's house the other morning. The birds also greeted me, and a different kind of quiet. I don't live in a big city, but it is big enough that there are always sounds of traffic and daily living that impede on nature's sounds. On the farm, nature reigns.
I slept, read, spent time with family, watched basketball, walked, ran, helped clean. It was all relaxing because it was a slower pace and my expectations were out of the mix, unlike in my own home. This easier mindfulness was appreciated. I will consider ways to bring it with me more, including here at my own house.
Where do you find easier mindfulness?
Don't get me wrong. I love my own home and my family here, and I appreciate the job I have in many ways. But both my home and my job tend to come with to-do lists that never really end. If I am here in my house, I am always finding something to clean, put away, take care of. I can relax, but often only after I have gotten a number of things done, or sometimes early in the morning when I give myself time to meditate and take things slowly.
And then there's my job. My desk starts fairly clean each morning and can look quite cluttered and flustered by the day's end. I often feel the same way. There are emails, calls, students to see, lesson plans to finish, parent meetings, department work to attend to, and so on. I like the variety of my job and the fact that no two days are the same, but sometimes there could be less variety.
So when my son Sam and I traveled to Iowa for a couple days and spent time on our family's farm, it was an easier mindfulness that I found. I have to literally leave my job and house behind to leave behind some of the expectations I put on myself about each. This sunrise greeted me from the front porch of my mom's house the other morning. The birds also greeted me, and a different kind of quiet. I don't live in a big city, but it is big enough that there are always sounds of traffic and daily living that impede on nature's sounds. On the farm, nature reigns.
I slept, read, spent time with family, watched basketball, walked, ran, helped clean. It was all relaxing because it was a slower pace and my expectations were out of the mix, unlike in my own home. This easier mindfulness was appreciated. I will consider ways to bring it with me more, including here at my own house.
Where do you find easier mindfulness?
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