Sunday morning

It’s a quiet morning this dawn, the sky in pinks and blues, and outside, nothing moves. The kids are gone til Tuesday.

How many times a week do we just sit and listen to the stillness? Not many. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve recognized its presence in a very long while.

It’s good to know, however, that I’m making good choices. On Friday, I took my car to my new client, Kenny Walters, and he handled it expertly. I knew I was in good hands.

It’s the same way I feel about Deborah Williamson’s 21-day Cleanse. More than food, her daily emails had writing assignments, breathing exercises, yoga poses. I didn’t do many of them, but just to read them was enlightening:

Day 20: List five things you are afraid of. Most fear comes from future-thinking; you can’t predict the future.

I know many people who live for the future. But what about right now? I want to ask them. It’s that whole stillness thing. If I don’t sit still right now and envelope all that surrounds me, I don’t actually notice it.

And life is in the details.

In warmer months, the kids and I hike through the grounds of Cranbrook or find other woods to get lost in. There are so many sounds to nature, a symphony of the natural world that we rarely hear. Twigs cracking, squirrels skittering, the call and flight of birds. I dare say it’s half a life if we don’t ever stop to admire all that lives around us.

And speaking of Half a Life, I’m reading Darin Strauss’ magnificent memoir about how the 16-year-old him fatally hit a 16-year-old girl on a bike with his car. The clean, spare writing is so poignant, so felt, so right-this-minute, I can’t help but turn the pages.

So that’s the mandate for today: notice things. See the details of life. Admire all that surrounds me. And take time to appreciate it.