This is a community project that has no real rules — the idea is to simply take a photograph every day for the whole of August. That’s it. Pause, look around you and shoot what you see. Live inside each moment. Pay attention to what’s there. If it’s the summer where you are it’s a lovely way to be present to the moments that will be gone before you know it.
I love how this practice allows me to transition from summer vacation to the beginning of Fall semester and back to work. After four years, it’s familiar and comforting, but also inspiring.
Breakfast
I slept in this morning. Instead of getting up at 5 am, I got up at 6. Eric took the dogs on their walk without me, which is good because I’m trying to rest my foot, hoping it will heal faster.
Putting together my breakfast feels like making an offering. I made the bran muffins yesterday morning, with a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. The secret is the blackstrap molasses (which the recipe doesn’t call for) and yogurt (which it does). The muffins are soft and sweet, but not too sweet. I add two kinds of berries and some dried plums to the bowl. I pour myself a glass of cold water, (I gave up coffee at the beginning of the summer). This is the same breakfast I’ve been eating for months. I’m like that, prefer a routine, am satisfied for long periods of time with the same thing on repeat. I enjoy the ritual.
Most mornings, I eat at my writing desk. Because I was later than usual this morning, the sound coming through the open window just over my head is the sprinkler rather than the birds. The whole house fan is on so there is a small breeze. I take out my notebook and write today’s date, realizing it’s time to turn my calendar to a new month. The quote for August is from Caroline Myss, “We are the means through which the world changes. When you pray for change, it is you that is going to change, not the world around you.”
Before I eat or write, I meditate. I usually sit for 10 minutes. I might take a few sips of water, eat a berry or two, but mostly I’m just sitting, breathing, relaxing into the morning, into myself. When I’m finished, I open my notebook and start to write, taking breaks between words to eat a few more berries or take a bite of my muffin or drink more water. I write at least three pages, front and back, every day, no matter what.
I know some of you will be sad about this, but there won’t be a Something Good list next week. I’m taking a week off to visit my family in Oregon, which means I’m taking a week off from blogging. I hope that even without my list, something good will find its way to you, kind and gentle reader. If not, this particular list is long enough, it might take two weeks to get through it all. 🙂
4. 7 Reasons Why Life Is Better Without Booze. The author’s website looks pretty great too: “Soberistas.com, a website which brings together a totally non-judgmental community of like-minded people who’ve either kicked the booze or who are looking for help in doing so.”
It should be the easiest thing of all, shouldn’t it? But it isn’t easy to be true to yourself. Sometimes it is a very lonely road, and a very bumpy road. There are days when we all want to look around at what everyone else is doing and then just do the same so we can go with that flow and just fit in. At least it wouldn’t feel so lonely. Or would it???
You may have tried to fit in, and tried again, and then still again. You may have even “toned it down” enough for a while that you actually DID fit in, but it made your heart hurt and you just couldn’t betray yourself for very long.
If every funky little daisy in the flower garden spray painted herself red so she could hang out with the roses, the world wouldn’t have any variety at all, and what a sad sad sad life for that sunshiny, spunky free-spirited daisy. She was born to be a daisy, after all.
And guess what? the other flowers want her to be a daisy, too. Daisies are WONDERFUL. Be courageous enough to boldly live your own truth. You are so very very very spectacular. Just BE YOU.
And,
One of the worst mistakes we can ever make is to wait and wait and wait for there to be the “right amount” or the “right people” or the “right person” or the “right circumstances” to start living the life that is calling to us. No matter where we are or what we have, there is always a way to get headed in the right direction…and to just begin.
So, dear friend, begin today. Begin with something big or begin with something small, but begin. Begin with one step. And then just take another and another and another and another. If you are waiting for the perfect time to start, the perfect time is now. If you think the time has passed and it’s too late, it is not. Begin today. We really just have to decide that we are going to make something happen, and somehow we will be able to pull together what we need to do it.
As the old Chinese proverb goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago — the second best time is today.” Do what you can with what you have right now, today. Begin.
And,
If you’ve felt that you have to do more to “earn” help or comfort or blessings….if you’ve struggled through to prove that you can do it on your own and run yourself into the ground before you ask for help…if you are so busy with your head down, plowing through and suffering…that you simply fail to notice things that would ease your pain that are right in front of you…
…then it’s time, sweet friend, to look around and see what is there to make things better. Notice beauty, good books, music, helpful people, generous offers and random acts of grace. When something shows up, open yourself up to it. You don’t have to earn it, you don’t have to do anything to “deserve” it. Simply noticing it, welcoming it, and saying thank you is enough…
Loving-kindness is the essence and nature of the whole world and of every being. To see and experience this is to realize who we are. We can all observe that, if someone is in a quiet, undisturbed place—for example, in nature—he or she will become more peaceful. The more peaceful that person becomes, the more joyful, wise, and helpful they will be to others. That is a clue that our human nature in its normal, undisturbed state is not violent or harmful, but loving.
74. Wisdom from singer Madjo, “In order to create, you first have to exit the darkness. Seize those first notes and let them run wild. Accept that you won’t master them right away.”
83. President Obama Delivers Eulogy at Charleston Shooting Funeral of Clementa Pinckney. You can read the full transcript here.
84. Wisdom from Gavin Newsom,
The unsung heroes are the millions and millions of people across this country that engaged in conversations. And many of those one-on-one conversations made people think twice about their original positions. At the end of the day it was nothing more than the aggregation of those conversations and the courage of people to stand up to even their parents, to say, “No Dad, you’re wrong on this—it’s wrong to deny Uncle Bob the ability to get married; it’s your brother. How dare you subjugate him to second-class status?” It was literally those conversations that changed public opinion, gave politicians more courage, and brought us to where we are today.
93. A blessing from Ronna Detrick, “Sometimes hanging on by even a thread to the tenderest and tiniest inkling of your own value, beauty, and worth changes everything. Don’t let go.”
This will be my fourth year doing August Break with Susannah Conway. She describes it this way,
I love how this practice allows me to transition from summer vacation to the beginning of Fall semester and back to work. After four years, it’s familiar and comforting, but also inspiring.
I slept in this morning. Instead of getting up at 5 am, I got up at 6. Eric took the dogs on their walk without me, which is good because I’m trying to rest my foot, hoping it will heal faster.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 