I am taking Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction; week 2 homework includes doing one every day activity mindfully -- notice everything, engage all senses -- and logging it. What would I pick? As it turns out, my activity picked me and here are the first three experiences:
2/13 - Is it a snow day? Couldn't get downstairs fast enough to get out in it, the snow was up to the ridge of the front door and if it hadn't been so soft fluffy, I could have walked out and across a sea of white. Snow was heavy to move as I pushed the door open. Cool warmth of snow falling morning air felt very cold in my nostrils. Gray scene filled in with white flakes still making their way to earth. Icy hard branches rustling in the slow wind tinkled in my ears, stepped out into snow that came to the top of my black patent leather rain boots. Interrupted that perfectly undisturbed sea in front of me by moving snow aside with my feet. Snow dropped into my boots shocking my ankles with a sudden chill! Tromped down the hidden steps making fresh tracks to make my way around back to clean 10 inches off the car. No way to get to work today...it IS a snow day, hooray!
2/14 In a rush this morning to get downstairs and into the cab; car is snow-blocked into my parking space behind the building, lucky a cab arrived at a decent time. Took time to notice turning and hearing the key click in the lock despite my hurry though I don't recall my steps. Opened the downstairs door to sparkling melting snow, the sun bright in the horizon; the steps and sidewalk looked like tan beach sand against the white, it had been shoveled though there was still a footprint path through the smooshy snow that led out to the cab. Air felt and smelled warmer than yesterday, not as biting.
2/15 Opened front door, nose assaulted by chemical scent of cleaning products from yesterday in the stairwell; took each step one at a time noticing the crunch of salt under my sneakers, the stillness of 8:00am on a Saturday in the building while a slight pain in my right knee engaged in a conversation with my body. Before opening door to go outside, looked out window, a squirrel was scampering in the remnants of three-day-old snow. Stepped out into cold drops of rain meeting the beads of hot sweat on my forehead cooling me after a vigorous 45-minute session on the treadmill. Looked around the horseshoe cul-de-sac at the no longer white snow, my breath in front of me further clouding an already overcast morning and gulped in the day. Anticipating a warm cup of tea, headed back upstairs to grab camera to photo document the experience.
Amazing to me what we don’t notice though we do it daily and the minute and major differences that occur while doing that familiar thing one day after the other. No thing is the same today as it will be tomorrow nor is it just like what happened yesterday so be in the moments of your day. Your life will surprise you if you…
keep your peepers open!®
As much as I love music, turning on the radio has long since been second nature for me when I get in the car. Thank goodness for Pandora, a great source for new sounds, though sometimes by the time I hear them the tunes have been around for years, which is how I found First Circle by Pat Metheny Group. The title cut is one that calls for the volume to be turned up so it feels like I’m at a live concert right in my own living room, one that deserves to be played loud as you lay back, eyes closed and let the music and the voice of Pedro Aznar take you on a journey. His vocalized sounds not words are haunting, exhilarating, soar. When the last note drops like a huge exclamation punctuating the air, I applaud; it’s that good for me! The energy from start to finish is truly exhilarating, joyously lifting me each time I hear it.
Pandora also recently exposed me to more soul stirring music missed upon its release -- Chico Pinheiro’s There’s a Storm Inside and Anthony Wilson’s Campo Belo. Pinheiro is a Brazilian guitarist/vocalist who, as I began to listen to the original compositions mixed in with familiar songs, reminded me of Toninho Horta, though he does have his own sound that in one review was described as seductive…I agree. Wilson, an American jazz guitarist, went to Sao Paulo and teamed with Brazilian musicians to record a sensuous collection of all original creations with a Brazilian flare. Get a glass of some elixir for this one.
