grateful today

To be healthier.

To have enough money.

To have passed my statistics quiz.

To get to go to Women’s Music Festival.

-Katy

After reading your post the other day about the James Taylor lyric, it got stuck on repeat inside my head. To purge it, I sang it out loud, which is always a good feeling. And then I sang it with great gusto, which had a Pied Piper effect, bringing four concerned cats running.

“Any fool can do it… try not to try too hard.”

- Estyn

I got 100% on my first graduate level statistics quiz.

And I only burst into tears once during the whole test.

-Katy

I’ve been thinking about the James Taylor lyric, “the secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.”

Today I’m grateful to not be battling it.  Tired?  Take a nap.  Time to eat?  Fry an egg.  Time to study? Take it easy.

-Katy

Probably 75% of my anxiety revolves around a false sense of scarcity of time. I want to do five thousand things, and I have time to do three. Or I won’t have enough time to do things next week, or before I get sick, or die.

Consider the thistles of the field, Katy!  They are not worried about finishing their homework or the laundry!

-Katy

I love it when the summer fruit shows up at the farm stand. This week there were blueberries, plums and — best of all — peaches.

- Estyn

-Katy

I’ve been meditating a little bit this past week.

I do it in the morning, after half a cup of coffee so that I’m not too wired but neither am I going to fall back asleep. I started with seven minutes — my compromise between five and ten — and have been increasing by a minute a day. I figure I can ease my way up to half-an-hour this way. Or not. I may quit tomorrow.

I’m finding that the practice helps me stay much more even keel and gives me a teeninsy bit of distance from my thoughts throughout the day. It seems to work even better if I’ve also done two minutes of yoga stretches, or spent some time in the garden before getting into my work day.

I should, however, make clear that my meditating does not look or feel like any kind of blissful peacey la-la trance. It goes more like this:

Breath.

“Maybe next year I’ll plant those cornichon cucumblahblahblahblah….”

OH! Thinking!

Half breath.

“What if I run out of money and can’t pay theblahblahblahblah….”

THINKING!!

Breath.

“Maybe I could blahblahblahblah….”

THINKING!!

“If I just blahblahblahblah….”

THINK… “Blahblahblahblah….”

Oops, thinking!

Breath.

Buzzer sound.

If you’ve ever watched Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan walk an unruly dog, then you’ve witnessed my brain at meditation. (Strain on leash. “Tsst!” Strain on leash. “Tsst!”) Which makes it all the more shocking that these tiny, unskillful attempts are having a distinct effect on my serenity.

- Estyn

Happy and I survived an early morning rush to the emergency 24/7 vet this morning.  So grateful.  Have you heard of bloat?  I just learned about it recently, and she sure had several of the symptoms, but it was a false alarm.  Weirdly, many of the preventative measures are the same as ones I need for my digestive system.

Maybe I was projecting…..

-Katy

After I took this toad’s picture, I gently lifted him off the hood so I could go to the market.  But he leapt out of my hand and jumped on my arm then my face then my chest then my leg before he got to the ground.

Hugged by the toad.

-Katy