Today I Decided to Breathe

BREATHE

I looked inside my head and ... I got nothin'

I spent what I thought was a great deal of time deciding what to write today. 

I think the "vacation" mentality is finally affecting me.  It's taken me most of this week to reach the point where I'm not constantly thinking about my to do list or my to call list.   I've reached the point where I'm having to remember the day of the week.  This is surprising to me because I work at home, and when you work at home the days are not quite as regimented as they are when you work outside the home.  I have been finding it difficult to "let go" this week.

I know I needed a vacation because I had been feeling physically tethered to my laptop, my phone and even my Kindle Fire (where I can check emails).  I don't usually keep a total of the number of hours I work each week.  I now believe it is a practice I should begin at the end of our "staycation".  

This week I have been checking emails, have done limited prospecting and contacting leads and have been writing the daily blog, but not much else of what I normally do.  Somehow I felt guilty about that until today.

What I realized today

Today we took Mollie to New Tripoli to visit and play with her pack at True Blue Acres.  Mollie was born there and we visit all the other Irish Red and White Setters when we can as we love them all and consider all 10 of them part of the family. (Excuse me, 12 of them. Ten IRWS and 2 hunting terriers.)

We sat in the sun and watched the dogs just being their usual IRWS silly selves, gave belly rubs and got lots of doggy love.  It was fun and had the added benefit of expending a lot of Mollie energy.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store for a few things.  I waited in the car with Mollie, all the car windows down and a gentle breeze serving to cool us down.

I sat there looking out the window, watching people and cars come an go and I started looking at the sky and leaves on the trees.  And I thought:  "What if this is the last summer day you ever see?  What if this is your last day on earth?"  Why don't you take time to really enjoy it?

I don't focus on mortality (mine or that of anyone else) very often, in fact it's rather rare that I do.  But today, I just stopped thinking of everything and just:

1. Felt the heat and the breeze
2. Listened to the birds
3. Watched the leaves stirring on the branches
4. Observed people as the store shift changed
5. Watched the "cart lady" returning all the orphaned carts to the corral and then to the store
6. Breathed in the scents of summer
7. Watched the clouds in the sky
8. Enjoyed every single minute of that brief quiet time

Then I decided to spend some time each day to just...Breathe, and appreciate every present moment.  And give thanks, definitely give thanks.

So now, before it's too late tonight, I'm going to watch "The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug" with my husband.  It's a movie he's wanted to see for some time now, and it's a vacation night afterall.