Patchwork Pondering~

As I stretch into this day, waiting patiently for my kettle to boil, I am realizing how very different my Sunday mornings are now compared with the way they used to be.  And as I contemplate these differences, each one, each difference that is, becomes like a piece of a patchwork quilt that makes up the colorful tapestry of my own being, dark in some places and light in others.  I can see them their now, these patches of self, all laid out in my minds eye, and each gentle thought like a kind of thread that holds the pieces together, creating a "quilt of being" that contains the diversity of my human ways.

The diversity that I am noticing in this moment comes from comparing the many ways in which I have been known to greet the day. I used to spend my mornings running and making lists, and getting things done.  I took great pride in this and declared to everyone around me with great enthusiasm that I was a "Morning Person."  The irony in this statement is that I was so busy, I didn't even know what morning was.  I had never really noticed morning, never really observed this beautiful time of day, never really admired mornings light, or her stillness, or her smells. In all of my doing there was not much being occurring, and so mornings quickly became afternoons, and afternoons evenings, and whole days could be swallowed up with tasks, without me having noticed that the light had changed.

As I write this, I have to giggle, because I am not immune to these ways. I have by no means out grown them, or risen above them, or evolved into some kind of verging on enlightened mediator, no, nothing like this.  The only thing I can say for myself here, is that sometimes, on some days, like today, I choose to greet the day with listening rather than lists.  And when I do this, I always feel better.  And then, I have also given up running, which was a good choice for me.  This all happened quite suddenly, some 10 years ago, when I found myself jogging at dawn on a beach in Thailand.  There was a young boy there too, and he started to run along beside 

me on the white sand, asking me in a panic " miss miss, can I ask you, what is chasing you, what are you running from?"  

Needless to say that young Thai lad  changed something in me forever, because when I stopped running to try and explain to him why I was running, I didn't actually have an answer.  And as far as what I was running from, well, I didn't have the ability to articulate this to a 9 year old boy whose language I didn't know.  And so, I thanked him for pointing out to me that what I was doing was confused, as indeed, there was nothing chasing me, and after that, I walked on the beach, and did yoga outside my grass hut in the mornings.  Now I mostly sip tea and read poems in the mornings or go for walks with my Dog friend.  

If ever you are wondering how to best spend your morning, watch a dog.  Dogs do the same things every morning, wake gently, stretch attentively, greet lovingly, pee, and then they take a few moments to sniff the air and the grass before expressing their happiness to simply be awake.  It's a kind of brilliant thing.  

So this post is dedicated to mornings, and wise children, and dogs, and listening, and acceptance, and pause, and breath, and light, and newness, and patch work quilts~