Weekend Musings

I just had a four day weekend, filled with family.

My sister and her husband are in town, unfortunately so that he could have some surgery, but it was an opportunity to spend time with my amazing sister and support her as she gave support to her husband. I spent one night with her at her hotel after spending time at the hospital.

We browsed the Main Street antique shops and had a delicious lunch on Saturday after checking in at the hospital.  Then I headed over to the sunshine coast to spend a couple of nights with my parents as Mom has not been well and I thought they could use a little support and company. 

Meanwhile, I kept up with my Blog Challenge as best I could.  I did the exercises and made some notes each day. 

Day 8 Challenge:  Look Up

 Many times throughout the day I took the opportunity to look up. Clouds blue sky and leaves skittering past.

 Before turning in I stood outside the hotel which is near the airport and watched a plane fly in low. 

 Looking up made me feel small but not insignificant.  It made me aware of being surrounded by a huge world.

 

Day 9

 

 Nature, outdoors, trees, plants and animals are enormously important in my life. I cannot bear a day when I have have no opportunity to go outside and drink in some deep breaths of fresh air and feel my muscles warm as I walk.   Rainwear is one of my wardrobe essentials living in vancouver bc Canada!  Chuckles and  wilderness camp as often as possible  to get deep into nature and away from the city. We are in the process of becoming country folks moving from the city to a 5 acre property in the country in order to get more nature and its positive impact into our lives.

 I look forward to being able to grow more of our own food and the nurturing processes this involves.

I may have experienced a mindful living epiphany as I dealt with traffic through the downtown core and across the city to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal .  I realized that by leaving enough time to drive there without being in a rush,I created space in my life to appreciate the architecture of the tall buildings, the craggy rocks that rim the highway, and the grey mist that billowed and snaked amidst the traffic.  Rather than feeling the need to race the traffic to make my ferry, I could relax and drink in the stunning beauty that was, and has always been before my eyes.

 

Day 10  Challenge: Unplug

 

I have to say that generally I am a pretty good un-plugger.  I am not a technology addict though sometimes I do get sucked into the bottomless abyss of Facebook or YouTube and suddenly wonder where an hour of my life has gone.   On my cell phone I will often have the sound off, so that I have to look at it to know that someone has called.  That way I can use the phone as a tool which works on my agenda, and not be at the beck and call of the world all the time.  The same thing applies to the computer.  I spend enough time in front of it during my workday, and I often don’t use it on my free time. 

What' ironic is that this particular day I found myself quite plugged in, as I was trying to stay in touch with my sister and the happenings with her husbands recovery, as well as Chuckles, my hubby who was away, then had a change of plans.  But I did put the phone away for several hours and focussed on Mom and Dad who I was spending time with.

The feeling of being unplugged is one of owning your time, and prioritizing it for yourself, not on anyone else’s terms. 

When you turn off the TV and the radio, you hear the world around you.

 

Day 11

Most nights I do get enough sleep.  My body doesn’t function at all well on less than 7 hours and 8 hours is optimum for me. 

 

 It is often when my head hits the pillow that the stresses of the day or of life in general start to play around in my head.  I can go to bed dog tired, and will be relaxed and nearly asleep when suddenly a though pops up and in an instant I am wide awake!  I have found through this blogging challenge that the exercise of focusing on my breath is an excellent way to fall asleep.  That is when I now employ the focus on the breath and pushing away all thoughts gently, and it works like a charm!

 

Day 12 Are you impatient with yourself and how does that show up in your life?

 

I have never reflected on whether I am impatient with myself.  I know and acknowledge that I am impatient with others and it is not a trait I like in myself at all!  When I respond or react to a person or situation out of impatience,  I don’t like myself very much.

However, knowing that impatience is one of my character traits, it makes sense that I am also impatient with myself.

How I believe this manifests in my life is in all the unfinished projects, the unlearned instruments, the unwritten blog entries and the good intentions that I have not carried through with because of my impatience with the process.  I don’t have the patience, often, to allow myself to learn new things, and in the process of that, to fail and try again, repeatedly, until I have learned. 

I love the graphic used to illustrate todays challenge.  I want patience, and I want it NOW!  That’s me with everything!