Archives for posts with tag: Moments

This is Dedicated…

December 4, 2020 //

…To the one(s) I love (right now)… 🙂

It’s my Traveling Partner’s birthday, today. It’s been my great good fortune, now, to share his birthday with him for 10 of them. Wow. Quite a bit of time together. It’s gone by rather quickly. 😀

I find it sometimes a bit challenging to find gifts that will suit his taste, and his current activities and interests. Sometimes costs put a neat idea quite out of reach. This year, the real challenge is that we both have what we need, and we’re together; everything else feels “extra”. I did find a couple gift-worthy items that I hope he likes, and I definitely “went for it” with the cake and ice cream. lol My time, my presence – that, too. I’m taking half a day off to enjoy with him. 😀

I slept like crap last night. I mean… I woke an hour or so after I went to bed, and couldn’t fall back to sleep until sometime well after midnight. The sleep I got was fine. I’m tired and in pain, though. I’d like to feel young and fit and thoroughly joyful today, for sure. Gotta make do with this mortal form and all the challenges that go with that – and avoid taking any of it at all personally. Aging? Yeah – totally impersonal. lol

So… looks like today will balance genuine joy and celebration, and the precious gift of our limited mortal time together – balanced with the unfortunate truths of aches, pains, and mortality itself. lol Still – this human traveling sharing life’s journey with me? Now that’s a life worth celebrating. 😀 Certainly my life would be very different today if I were without his companionship and love.

…Don’t forget to tell those special human beings in your life how special they are.

Tags begin again, happy birthday to you, If I didn't have you, joy and celebration, life in the time of pandemic, love letter, Moments, pain and pain management, pandemic life, this is dedicated (to the one I love), you say it's your birthday

Categories autumn, Brain Injury, Free Will, gratitude, Healthy Living, Love, Mindfulness, Moments, pain, Perspective, Post Traumatic Stress, Practices, Relationships, The Big 5

Quiet Moments

December 1, 2020 //

I’ve learned to find quiet moments almost anywhere that isn’t ridiculously noisy or busy. Handy. Sometimes I do find that I’ve got to search out that moment of quiet, or build it from unexpected circumstances, but now and then some perfectly lovely moment of quiet just happens to be where I am sitting.

I didn’t sleep well last night. I woke often. I returned to sleep with relative ease, mostly. I never felt wholly awake and alert (which might have made getting up make sense), and I didn’t feel particularly sleepy at the time (even immediately before falling asleep). “Wakeful” night. I seem to have managed to get enough rest, anyway. 🙂

There was this one quiet moment, during the night, that I sat contentedly, relaxing in the dim glow of the Giftmas tree lights, just enjoying that quiet moment. It was lovely. There was no pressure to do more, or do differently. No rush. No stress. Just quiet time, there in the holiday twilight alone, while my Traveling Partner slept on, in the bedroom. It was precious.

Today is lovely, too. Beautiful moments. A soak in the hot tub on a misty cold autumn morning. A quiet cup of coffee shared with my partner. A spontaneous exchange of yule gifts, because… why not? It was delightful. 🙂 The recollection of it still is.

I sit smiling in this quiet moment, retrieving joyful memories of other quiet moments. Enjoying joy through recalling joyful moments. Easy. (And yes, it’s a practice, and yes, there are verbs involved, and results may vary…but how pleasant to practice it? Why wouldn’t I? 😀 )

Here. Now. This is enough. I fill up on the joy and contentment, smiling. It’s the middle of a work day… time to begin again. 🙂

Tags be here now, begin again, contentment, enjoy the moment, filling a hole, joy, love and lovers, MBSR, meditation, Merry Giftmas, Moments, poor sleep quality, practicing the practices, ptsd, taking a moment, taking in the good, taking time for me, TBI

Categories Allegories, autumn, Brain Injury, Free Will, gratitude, Healthy Living, inspiration, Love, Mindfulness, Moments, Perspective, Post Traumatic Stress, Practices, Relationships, Sleepless Nights, The Art of Being

The Chill in the Air

October 23, 2020 //

Chilly morning. Coffee just a memory at this point. I consider making a pot of tea, or having a mid-morning soak in the hot tub. I think ahead to the weekend, and blustery autumn days, chilly walks through piles of autumn leaves, and cozying up to the fireplace wrapped in a soft blanket with a good book. There are some delights that even pandemic life does not dim. A book by the fire? Add a mug of warm cocoa to that, and it’s a small slice of heaven for some of us. 🙂

I ran a brief errand, and returned home. There’s still something so magical about stepping over the threshold, here. Home. Feels good. I smile at the fall foliage on the pear tree beyond the window. Here and there, green leaves turning to russet shades, shaking with the breeze as if to say “it is chilly today”. I sigh out loud in the quiet of my studio.

Small moments and small pleasures make up so much of what is joyful in life. I mean… that’s true for me, specifically. I can’t speak for your experience. 🙂 My results do vary… often depending on my choices. I sit with that though for a moment, aware of the chilly autumn day beyond the window. Aware of the comfort I am fortunate to enjoy, here at home. I think about that hot tub, out on the deck, and the pain I am in with my arthritis, right now…

…Choices… verbs… free will… opportunity…

…It’s a good time to begin again. 🙂

Tags arthritis pain, autumn, be the change, begin again, choices, good self-care, home sweet home, it's your life how will you live it?, MBSR, mindfulness matters, Moments, my results vary, ptsd, small pleasures, sufficiency, take care of yourself, taking care of me, TBI, there are verbs involved, what will you do with your moment?, you matter, your results may vary

Categories Allegories, autumn, Brain Injury, Free Will, gratitude, health, Healthy Living, inspiration, Metaphors, Mindfulness, Moments, pain, Perspective, Post Traumatic Stress, Practices, The Art of Being

Choices, Moments, Steps

January 29, 2019 //

It is afternoon, sometime. I am tired – so tired. I woke in the night for no obvious reason, and after getting a drink of water to soothe me of nightmares I had already forgotten, and checking my email and finding profound connection, and amazing good news, both, I just couldn’t sleep. My mind would not quiet itself. So… I rested quietly in the darkness, smiling.

I’ll start a new job soon. I’m excited about it. There’s nothing much else to say at present. It appears to be a good choice, made in the right moment, and it is an excellent “next step” toward a future that remains unscripted, and wholly unpredictable. This amuses me, considering that a large part of what I do professionally gives every appearance of “predicting the future” in some way. lol

I’m tired now. So tired. Too well caffeinated, and I may regret that later… but for now, it sustains my attention on the matters currently at hand.

New beginnings? I see several coming up fast. 🙂

Tags boundary setting, building a future I want to live in, changes, choices, choose wisely, decisions, going for it, good self-care, life and work, life is a banquet, mindfulness matters, Moments, next steps, taking care of me, what matters most?

Categories Brain Injury, Free Will, Healthy Living, inspiration, Moments, Perspective, Post Traumatic Stress, Practices, winter

Breathe Through It

July 20, 2018 //

I woke rested after crashing super early. One of the definite perks of adulthood isn’t really about “getting to stay up as late as I want” – although from the vantage point of childhood that was a pretty big deal – it’s more relevant that I can easily choose to sleep “whenever I want” (with some obvious restrictions, like not choosing to do so while I’m at work lol). So… I did. I called it a night early and got the additional rest I was obviously needing in the moment. Nice.

My comfortable, rested, cheery state of being was almost knocked askew by fucking Facebook, of all things. Damn some people are… yeah, well, they’re people. We can leave it there. I persist in being astonished by human cruelty, human stupidity, human aggression, and the “us vs. them” bullshit that divides us all. I just don’t get it – why don’t more people choose differently?

I started down the path of “letting it get to me”, which could potentially promise a fairly miserable Friday, given the chance to take over my consciousness. I decide, instead, to simply “breathe through it” and let that less than ideally comfortable moment pass.

Now it’s just me, my coffee, and this headache that I no longer recall whether it is continuous since the last one, or an altogether new one. It’s a headache. Having one has become a nearly permanent condition. I sip my coffee, and breathe through that, too. 🙂

I stay home this weekend. There’s plenty to do here. My fairly lengthy “to do list” of chores and errands is long-ish, and persistent about being on my mind. Self-care comes in many forms. This weekend, apparently, it takes the form of vacuuming, dishes, laundry, weeding, and watering. lol All things that are necessary to building the quality of life I most enjoy. So. Verbs and all, I’ll be doing some things around the house this weekend. I’m okay with that. I’m also looking forward to sleeping in… I mean, really – and no alarm clock. (Pretty sure I’d have slept even later, this morning, without the alarm going off.)

It’s not fancy. It’s life. One moment, one day, one practice at a time, it all amounts to living life. The rest are details and choices that determine what sort of life it is to live. 🙂

It’s time to begin again. 🙂

Tags alarm clocks, be the change, begin again, breathe, choose wisely, emotional self sufficiency, good self-care, I am my own cartographer, I'll sleep if I want to, living life, Moments, my home my rules my way, perspective, Practices, practicing the practices, ptsd, taking care of me, TBI, The Art of Being, there are verbs involved, walking my own path, what matters most?

Categories Brain Injury, Free Will, Healthy Living, Mindfulness, Moments, Perspective, Post Traumatic Stress, Practices, Summer, The Art of Being