Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

Image by Eric

1. The particular light of the sky in winter. Sunrise, sunset, the moon, midday, dusk — so many colors.

2. Vacation. I decided I needed another week, even if it might mean working extra later to make up for it.

3. Clementines (I can’t stop eating them), kale salad, chocolate chip cookies, honey smoked salmon, asiago bagels, Good Earth sweet & spicy tea, peppermint tea.

4. Ringo and Sam, the sweet spot. As happens when you hike — you work really hard, hike far, and at some point there’s this place that you finally get to that’s some sort of magic, I call it the sweet spot — there’s a place you get to with dogs when they are grown up enough but still young enough and healthy. I am enjoying it now because I know from experience how brief it can be, even if it’s years.

Image by Eric

5. The confidence to try new things. I haven’t always had it, as an introvert and HSP was just too anxious and timid, but I’m experiencing a funny extroversion right now, specifically in how I move my body. Training myself, teaching yoga, running again, trying new classes, applying for new opportunities.

Bonus Joy: Netflix (and smart friends with good taste who recommend more good stuff than I could ever watch), a morning walk with my boys, snow tires, wool socks, good gloves, ice scrapers, the way Ringo makes us laugh, how sweet and easy Sam is, hugging Eric for a full 20 seconds (I heard that is how long it takes to trigger some good biological something that I can’t remember the name of right now), drinking tea in the late afternoon, yoga, sweet friends sending me mail, reading.

1. Truth: The light this morning was dreamy. It was the first time I got to go on the morning walk in over a week. It was 27 degrees, almost a heatwave compared to the cold we’ve been having. The sky was so beautiful in places it almost made me cry with gratitude.

2. Truth: I can’t do everything. I know that must seem obvious to so many, but I still struggle with it. I try to figure out how to do it all, convinced that there’s some formula, that I’ll crack the code if I just keep working at it. And then something happens like the dryer stops working or I forget to buy puppy cookies at the feed store or I notice how badly the bathtub needs recaulked and I feel like I want to lie down and never get up.

3. Truth: The earlier in the day I can take a shower, the better. If I don’t, I do this thing where I schlep around the house in my purple fleece bathrobe doing “just this one more thing” and even though it might seem like I am getting a lot accomplished, really I’m stuck. It doesn’t feel good.

One Wish: On the days that feel hard, when we feel stuck or that there’s too much to do or when something as simple as the light of the morning sky makes us feel like crying, may we be gentle with ourselves.