Be a Good Steward

Eating a dinner of egg salad on homemade bread, carrots, berries and a homemade strawberry rhubarb bar (all made by my friend) on a bench next to the rose gardens, while people played lawn games nearby, and I ruminated over the piece I'd just heard on the radio. A woman described being 13 years old when the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and her recollections of that day kept me spellbound in my seat long after I turned off the car.

The woman admired Obama for being the first U.S. president to visit Hiroshima since that day, but also condemned his commitment to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal which she said would lead to another arms race with Russia and China.

The radio commentator said that Obama had made clear he would not be issuing an apology. I on the other hand think we should apologize for everything - the basic normal insanity of the human race.

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Earlier in the day, at a playground with my niece, nephew and friend's child, my nephew and I happened to be dressing in matching color schemes, we made a handsome pair.

My niece jumped right into a game I was playing with my friend's child. I was a troll under the slide that bangs on it when you go down and demands payment. She also made the sweetest funny face when we played the "fun police" where smiles are not allowed, trying to suppress her happiness into a scowl.

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Getting up from this, cause something told me to, to catch the brilliant orange of the setting sun.

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Jane Kenyon said: “Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours.”

Photos from Buffalo River State Park

#1 - Laughing during Ira Glass's opening song on last week's This American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/259/promised-land

#2 - Having leftovers for quick, easy meals today. I made broccoli cheese soup yesterday for the first time and it was quite yummi.

#3 - The amazing things I get to listen to because I do simple work. Today this included a Soul Series conversation between Oprah and Iyanla Vanzant, This American Life and "The Joy of Being" CD's from the library with Eckhart Tolle.

#4 - I steeped myself in the To Bless the Space Between Us : a Book of Blessings by John O'Donohue last weekend. It must have filled me up because today I wrote my own.

#5 - Trying to get this done so I could turn off the computer, kind of wrestling with it. Then letting go and deciding to eat dinner first. Everything in life can become another task to complete it seems, even being grateful. I actually fell asleep briefly outside in a camping chair after eating dinner. It was the reset I needed to come back to this with anew, to practice being grateful again.

Murphy Lake at Murphy Hanrehan Park
Courtesy of Michael

#1 - The owner where I take yoga thanked me for coming to laughter yoga last week and said Michael and I make a "beautiful couple".

#2 - My friend sent me this diverse books for middle school readers list a little over a year ago.

http://www.massliteracy.org/diverse-books-middle-school-readers/

I finally got around to adding these books to my library request list.

#3 - Which made me read the rest of that email chain which was about the first time Michael and his kids got together with my brother's family, a friend's child and I, and how well it went. I wrote, "I had wondered about bringing all these kids camping - whether they would play together ages 3, 5, 6 and 10 but they got along great. It felt so natural and easy."

That camping trip didn't happen last year, but it is planned for this summer.

#4 - I led an informal yoga session at one of the cross-country ski weekends last winter in the outdoor group where I met Michael. This group also has a weekly meeting and the guy who schedules them emailed me to ask if I knew someone, or would be the someone, to lead yoga at one because the person he had lined up to do it cancelled. I replied asking about payment saying I could probably find a teacher where I do yoga, or I could do something informal for free, but I'm not a yoga teacher.

He said they don't pay for presentations and that if I wanted to do it that would work. The original write up said, "Ever wondered how you can be less sore after a hard day of climbing, hiking, biking or paddling? Sheila ____, founder and owner of ____ Yoga Studio, will show us the best yoga poses and stretches to do before and after vigorous exercise. Bring a mat or blanket."

Well this description stressed me out a little because I don't know the "best poses or stretches". I offered a couple alternative descriptions and this is what came out.

"Yoga is a great way to take a break and get energized for the next leg of a long hike, bike ride or paddle. It can be done in the outdoors without any equipment - a mat is truly optional. You probably know that yoga increases balance, flexibility, and strength, but did you also know it protects the spine, cartilage and joints so we can continue to pursue an active lifestyle?

Tammy will lead us in some yoga poses and stretches."


#5 - And going back to #1. The reason we were at laughter yoga in the first place was because we were having a rough time, so the fact that we had a good hike together on Friday will not be taken for granted.

Breaking Free

#1 – I answered the phone during work and couldn't place who it was at first because it didn't fit that time of day. The man I'm dating said he wanted to hear my voice, though there ended up being mostly silence on the line. He and I had a tough past few days.

#2 – Taking time during work to receive that 15 minute phone call, and also to stop and write two long poems – because I can.

#3 – We might all go to laughter yoga tomorrow. I’ve wanted to go with him and his kids for a year or so but haven’t gotten around to it. It is once a month, but I wasn’t going to mention it this time because I thought there was enough going on already. But considering the past few days I thought some intentional laughter would be good for us, and he agreed.

#4 - "I would like to see you this weekend and hope that we can spend some time together before our May schedules get busy. No pressure, I'll understand if you are not up for it yet."

#5 - Walking over to my community education exercise class an hour early so I could lay in the grass and sun and write.