August 13, 2016: The Perfect Morning

My current view
My mom has been in town this week. The last time I saw her was on a visit to Arizona while I was taking a time off from my work life. Now months later and with me fully back on the work treadmill, I found myself making a comment to her on more than one occasion.

"Mom, I am so busy. How did I let this happen again?"

I swore myself to a more serene lifestyle after smelling the roses during my months off of work. Instead I have found myself shuffling calendar entries and running from back-to-back engagements and meetings. Although I have been wildly successful in my quest to work with the right people on the right projects, I've somehow left out the balance of leaving some time for myself.

Sometimes ones self is the best study of human nature. I have come to realize that what was good for me 20 years ago is different now. What I desire for daily personal time and replenishment of energy is much different today. I will rack that up to age and human experience.

What I know now...

I need more sleep and thoughtful meditation to be on my game. This is a daily need. Not a 'catch-up' later.

I also need more down time for those simple things in life that bring me pleasure. Writing is one of them. Building relationships is another. Whether sharing a blog post or enjoying life with my family and friends, these are things that fill my bucket and balance my days.

And then there are the little routines that are very individual to me, but are....oh, so satisfying.

The picture above expresses one of these guilty pleasures. Enjoying the start of my day with a cup of coffee in bed, a cuddling dog next to me, and a catch up on what is going on in the world via my favorite forms of electronic media. All without a sound in the house and my favorite vision of a window to the world of what awaits me outside.

Somehow with my new busy schedule, this little routine had completely exited my life. Although not an every-day occurrence, as I do enjoy my early morning runs with friends and coffees with colleagues; I have found that never having this morning 'me time' has been greatly missed.

And did I mention that when home, my husband makes me this cherished cup of coffee? A sweet wake up call and a daily act of kindness as he would go about the perfect start of his morning (which does not include reading in bed, by the way) while leaving me the peace of my early morning.

Today I re-captured my perfect morning. A cup of coffee. Update on the important news from the day before, national from CNN and friends on FaceBook and Instagram, as I see them as equally important. Some fiction reading and some non-fiction reading. Electronic exchanges with friends and family. No husband here to bring me my coffee, but he was only a few text messages and emoji's away from being a part of my happy morning existence.

Now I look out the window for my morning weather check after checking Yahoo Weather and any updates from my favorite FaceBook weatherman.

The American flag on my flagpole is barely fluttering. A perfect morning for a bike ride. Now I am ready to start the day.

And as for my mom's response this week to my whining on being too busy and not having time for myself...

"Sandy, only you can change that."

Always a wise woman.
xoxox





 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Own Your Shit

Image
  A few weeks ago my previously favorite blog subject (otherwise known as my middle son, Ben) called me for advice. The reason isn't significant now, but his approach to the conversation carried weight with me. "Mom, I need your advice on something. And before we even go there, what I am going to tell you is completely my fault. I get all the life lessons around it. What I want is just advice. So can we just put that all aside and stick to advice on my situation?" I respected Ben's ask and we had a productive conversation. He sought out advice from others and ultimately came to a good conclusion. Owning his shit and life lessons acknowledged early on,  I am pretty confident Ben won't be in the same situation again. I have always felt that a top responsibility in parenting is to teach our kids to think critically on their own. A specific skill that falls squarely in this category and high on my list is the ability to own your shit. To accept blame when due. To know
Read more

July 28, 2020: The New Normal

Image
"Are we back to normal again?" I heard my father-in-law, Larry (aka Old Guy), asking Garrett this as I laid in bed.  Garrett was performing his morning ritual of coffee bean grinding before brewing our morning specialty coffee. This was after he had read and stretched, all while I was still thinking about waking up. Through the crack in the door, I could see Larry sitting, feet up, in his favorite sofa spot. Jake, my step-son, was noisily filling his large water jug for a day in the sun at his summer job. This clanging of ice at 7 am along with the permeating coffee aroma and Larry's shuffling have been my morning wake-up routine of recent times. With my delivered cup of hot java, I hear the sounds of the morning; the garage door opening with Garrett taking Jake to work and the percolating of Larry's own coffee of choice, Folgers, in his Mister Coffee machine. His own pot to drink through the morning while enjoying his latest book. Yes, Larry, I think we are
Read more