Last week was a hard week. I had held it together well the week before when my husband was away on business all week. Perhaps because I had cut myself some slack to help the week go more smoothly. So last week, I was trying to catch up on loose ends I had left from the week before.
I also had two kids home with strep throat for a few days, and an event to coordinate for the school. And then there was a bit of drama with my other (volunteer) job which took a little extra time and a lot of extra mental energy.
Finally, on Friday night, as we were running this way and that to baseball games, the middle school play and last minute errands, the car broke down.
I was drenched and drained, and the Universe sent me the clear message that I needed to stop.
We had the car towed and managed to organize our weekend schedule so that we could manage with one car. By Saturday afternoon, I felt like I had slowed myself down enough to release some of the built up tension in my muscles. But I was still hovering by the fireplace, feeling the chill of a week’s worth of rain and the depletion that comes with sensory overload and frayed nerves.
On Sunday, my husband surprised me by having stayed up last Saturday night to clean the whole downstairs. I came downstairs to all the clutter put away, shiny clean floors and appliances. I felt my shoulders come down another notch.
In the afternoon, the sun came out – and this was no small thing. Eight days of rain has a way of getting to me on the inside. More than just damp shoes and flat hair – it dampens my spirit, and I begin to see everything from a perspective of cold and gray.
So, the sun came out and I ventured out to work in the garden. The sun felt so good on my skin, and I would swear the plants were also lifting their faces to the sun. I did some weeding and some transplanting, and it felt good to get my hands into the dirt. Working in the garden has a way of bringing me back to center.
Even with the bending and kneeling, my muscles relax and I feel my connection to the Earth. The smell of wet soil and sunshine, the cool feel of the dirt soaking through my jeans at the knees – I can be fully present here and let go of the worries and to-do lists that call to me inside the house. Instead of drenched, I am feeling quenched.
This morning, I look out my office window – and the sun is out again. I notice the leaves on the trees that popped out while I was indoors hiding from the rain. I can see the kale in the garden – flourishing. A robin sits on a nest, waiting patiently. The world is alive and beauty is all around me.
It was there through the rainy days, too. I just hadn’t allowed myself the mental space to notice it.
How easy it is to go through out days not noticing when we let the mental clutter take over.
And yet, how easy it is to release the tension and unease of being harried, pressured or uninspired when we make an intentional shift. It can be a shift in our environment, a shift in our physical body or a shift in our mental space. We have the power to move ourselves from drenched to quenched.
Today, I am grateful for the rain that quenched the seeds I planted a few weeks back. And I am grateful that it has stopped raining. A day of sun, and I now have pea plants sprouting!
Spring is alive and beauty is all around me.
Getting outside into the sun, de-cluttering a workspace, listening to a favorite piece of music – what helps you to re-align and come back to center?
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I also had two kids home with strep throat for a few days, and an event to coordinate for the school. And then there was a bit of drama with my other (volunteer) job which took a little extra time and a lot of extra mental energy.
Finally, on Friday night, as we were running this way and that to baseball games, the middle school play and last minute errands, the car broke down.
I was drenched and drained, and the Universe sent me the clear message that I needed to stop.
We had the car towed and managed to organize our weekend schedule so that we could manage with one car. By Saturday afternoon, I felt like I had slowed myself down enough to release some of the built up tension in my muscles. But I was still hovering by the fireplace, feeling the chill of a week’s worth of rain and the depletion that comes with sensory overload and frayed nerves.
On Sunday, my husband surprised me by having stayed up last Saturday night to clean the whole downstairs. I came downstairs to all the clutter put away, shiny clean floors and appliances. I felt my shoulders come down another notch.
In the afternoon, the sun came out – and this was no small thing. Eight days of rain has a way of getting to me on the inside. More than just damp shoes and flat hair – it dampens my spirit, and I begin to see everything from a perspective of cold and gray.
So, the sun came out and I ventured out to work in the garden. The sun felt so good on my skin, and I would swear the plants were also lifting their faces to the sun. I did some weeding and some transplanting, and it felt good to get my hands into the dirt. Working in the garden has a way of bringing me back to center.
Even with the bending and kneeling, my muscles relax and I feel my connection to the Earth. The smell of wet soil and sunshine, the cool feel of the dirt soaking through my jeans at the knees – I can be fully present here and let go of the worries and to-do lists that call to me inside the house. Instead of drenched, I am feeling quenched.
This morning, I look out my office window – and the sun is out again. I notice the leaves on the trees that popped out while I was indoors hiding from the rain. I can see the kale in the garden – flourishing. A robin sits on a nest, waiting patiently. The world is alive and beauty is all around me.
It was there through the rainy days, too. I just hadn’t allowed myself the mental space to notice it.
How easy it is to go through out days not noticing when we let the mental clutter take over.
And yet, how easy it is to release the tension and unease of being harried, pressured or uninspired when we make an intentional shift. It can be a shift in our environment, a shift in our physical body or a shift in our mental space. We have the power to move ourselves from drenched to quenched.
Today, I am grateful for the rain that quenched the seeds I planted a few weeks back. And I am grateful that it has stopped raining. A day of sun, and I now have pea plants sprouting!
Spring is alive and beauty is all around me.
Getting outside into the sun, de-cluttering a workspace, listening to a favorite piece of music – what helps you to re-align and come back to center?
*** if you are interested in receiving my blog posts to your Inbox, please click the button below. ***
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