P.A.U.S.E. at 5:10 p.m.

Living gratefully today, I give thanks for my sense of taste and the breakfast we just enjoyed together. 

I heard this acronym years ago from a recovery friend: P.A.U.S.E. Practice Awareness Until Spirit Emerges. For me this also reads: Get out of your own way Lisa. Let Higher Power/Great Spirit/Friend guide. 

I shared a new twist on the acronym with some colleagues yesterday: Practice Awareness Until Something I am grateful for Emerges. It usually doesn't take long for several things to show up and next thing I know there's a gratitude list and some humility and peace right here.

Either way, looking for guidance or gratitude, an actual pause is really the key. It starts with a pause and happens in a moment.  Like this moment:

I took this picture at 5:10 p.m. yesterday afternoon, out snowshoeing. Thirteen minutes before the sun was due to set. On Winter Solstice back on December 21, the sun set at 4:34 p.m. locally.  From 4:34 to 5:23. That's a chunk of added light time. Light we need this winter maybe more than ever. 

I will never again have that moment in the time and place I had yesterday at 5:10 p.m. There is something so beautiful and sustaining in that thought. 

Vaccines are getting into more arms and daylight is expanding. There is hope in this PAUSE.