Tag Archive | awareness

Noticing

Oct14

I’m grateful for noticing the slight shift in light this morning, just as I rose to come inside after a coffee break on the patio. It’s starting! I realized, and then I played with the ‘croissant eclipse’ we got to enjoy on the Western Slope just a bit east of the annular eclipse path across the western US. I first photographed the sunflowers and aspen I had shot earlier in the morning, noticing the orange cast to the pink gravel, and the general burnished feel to the atmosphere.

Then I dashed inside to get a couple of eclipse watching tools, either not having proper eyewear or not remembering where they might be. I poked a hole in the center of a clean cardboard pizza plate, and grabbed my favorite perforated kitchen tool.

I discovered during the last eclipse that a simple colander provides endless eclipse entertainment.

As the eclipse diminished, it was time to head inside for a Mindful Conversation Zoom, where we talked about the importance of and means to cultivating the skills of resilience, courage, and calm, so that we can act beneficially in this increasingly distressing world.

Then it was back outside for lunch, making the most of these precious fall days of waning warmth. I took a bowl of leftover broccoli Alfredo down to the pond and was happy to see a couple of leopard frogs also enjoying the sunshine. Wren rolled in the warm rushes, and Topaz jumped up on the table to keep us company. Soon it was time to go inside for another meeting, and then more time outside, in and out until dark.

After dark I baked the bread that had been proofing all day, even as I watched the Bread episode of the new Great British Baking Show. I gave myself Star Baker for this loaf, finally achieving the rise I’ve been after for the last several months of sad, flat loaves.

Time

Sep21

I’m grateful for time in my day to prepare simple, delicious meals like a tomato sandwich, or a twice-baked potato, and to put up the last of the peaches with another mini-batch of peach salsa. I’m grateful for time to exercise, and to garden, to read, write, and meet online or by phone with friends and colleagues. I’m grateful that I’ve streamlined my life so that I have time to work as well as to relax, and that I’m beginning to whittle down the distractions that claim my attention. I’m grateful above all that even during a full and busy day, I am able to find time to rest with awareness in the present moment.

Present Moment Awareness

Apr22
Inside the Kaleidoscope this morning, waking to another light snow

I set an intention this morning to fully inhabit the present moment as often as possible today. The alarm had jolted me awake from a dream feeling a certain type of way, and my first impulse was to try to go back into the dream–into the past–and I experienced a moment of clarity to let it go and simply be present in this moment, hearing snowmelt dripping from the tower roof onto the metal roof overhead, feeling the light of morning, the soft sheets, the warm little dog. I was able to inhabit that experience of the present moment, and appreciate it as pleasant, without thinking of the past or the future. I’m grateful for the practice of present moment awareness.

I enjoyed making these marinated lentils to use in salads for the coming week, and sautéed some kale and garlic for a bed, dressed it with Pad Thai sauce I made the other day to have on hand for quick stir fries this week, and garnished with pickled red onions leftover from the fancy sandwich I tried out last week. Here’s a picture of that since I couldn’t share it at the time because no internets.

Fancy sandwich I used to ‘soothe and distract’ from frustrations last week… Butternut squash and cheddar cheese with pickled red onions and garlic herb mayo. I threw in some sprouts as well.
I savored the scent of this bonsai jasmine vine for awhile this afternoon, after it lured me in as I passed by. I stopped and enjoyed a little snack after teaching class. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share mindfulness skills with others, and for the friendships that develop as we learn from each other.

I’m grateful that the little naturalizing tulips, Tulipa tarda, finally burst into bloom after the clouds cleared this afternoon, and that I made the time to be with and appreciate them. Topaz seemed pleased to see them as well.

And I was fully present in the moment with my snack, daffodil cake and vanilla ice cream, in the sunroom, with the jasmine, and the ancestral jade lion, the bonsai lemon verbena, and all the other growing flowering beings in that room. I’m grateful for all these sensory delights, and also for the deeper meaning they signify, of my devotion and gratitude to Mother Earth for her unstinting generosity to the greediest of species as well as to the most gentle and unassuming. I do my best to honor and protect her, and to deserve her bounty. Happy Earth Day.