Is it that the sun was gloriously shining the minute I woke up in the 5:45 a.m. region of the day? Is it that the pink on the east-facing horizon was so pure and lovely that I just knew it would be a slow good day?
Or is it that I’ve restored myself to balance and from there, everything flows?
I’m going with that.
Today: meditation, followed by brief yoga. Shaya climbed into bed in the 4 o’clock hour and insisted on waking up when I did to play with his new toys from his birthday party yesterday.
He followed me downstairs and quietly opened a box and set about playing while I went inward. After, as I did yoga, he sat next to me on the shag.
Then he brought the Spirograph 3D upstairs when I went to shower, and sat on the floor of my closet with pen in hand.
I woke the other kids early today so we wouldn’t be late and they meandered out of bed as they typically do. No fighting. No arguing. No I hate yous.
Breakfast in due time and enough time left to put the dishes in the dishwasher. I dropped them off in the warm morning and headed back home to walk my 2 miles before really starting the work.
But there was curly kale calling from the fridge, so I threw that and a long cucumber and some asparagus and spring onions into a pot with spices and vegetable broth and made a soup for tonight. While that bubbled, I tended to some emails and got caught up so I wouldn’t waste work time on that.
The soup done, I pureed it and put it in the fridge for later. Even had time to talk to my sister and book a tennis court for Thursday.
And then I went to work.
When a day starts like this — so cleanly and effortlessly, so full of grounding and sunshine and fresh air — I can’t help but be in balance. My soul aligns with my body. My feet stopped hurting as soon as I caught up on work.
What’s the secret there?
It’s so simple. Plug into who I am first and everything else falls into place.
Around noon today I was at WXYZ channel 7 with a client (Jewish Senior Life) and a 103-year-old man named Manny Hauer. Glenda Lewis and Joann Purtan asked him the secret to his long life. The man walked on the set without a cane or a walker.
Simple, he said. Exercise. Eat right. Stay married to the same woman for 73 years. “I don’t eat much,” he said. And the man walks two miles a day. He’s slowed down from his Senior Olympics days when 5 miles was the norm.
So simple. Take care of you to take care of you. Easy as that.