Stop.

Today I am grateful for quiet meditation time to begin the day, and for genuine and acknowledged emotions. 

Undoubtedly, this week of Thanksgiving feels different this year, and will be different in many ways. If I were to focus on what I can't do or have because of the pandemic, or how abnormal some things are right now, I would feel pretty deflated. 

Yet, I have so much to look forward to this week, today, this moment. Maybe I should rephrase that. I have so much to fully experience moment-by-moment. Sure, I have things I am anticipating with excitement, but I also have my healthy breathing and clean air right here, right now. 

This article, Cultivating a Practice: Grateful Living as a Way of Life by Kristi Nelson, Executive Director of A Network for Grateful Living, lays out the simple, yet profound, practice of "Stop, Look, Go" shared by Brother David Steindl-Rast. I will use the next three posts leading up to Thanksgiving to focus on each of these three words.

STOP. Stop what you are doing. Stop doing more. Cultivate a sense of presence and being. Less doing, more being. 

These are my feet, in my indoor shoes. I wear shoes most of the time, even in the house, because it is better for the bunion that I have on my right foot. 

I had to stop moving to take the picture. It's that simple. These feet usually get thousands of steps in each day. I am grateful for these steps, but they can also become my nemesis. One more errand, one more task, one more flight of stairs. I get caught up in productive mode and lose what my friend Jenny calls "the exquisite beauty of now." 

Now is the only place I can be fully present. I can't be present in the past or the future, so best to not spend too much time dwelling on either. Sometimes I actually end up rushing my life along, yet it is meant to unfold at a pace only partially dictated by humans. 

Stop. Slow the pace. Halt. Behold the moment at hand.