touchstone

when I wake up

I realize I have a pattern of listing off all the things I have to do, fix and change about myself, my day, my life. A wave of overwhelm floods into my chest and pulls my enthusiasm and energy down before I've even started my day. No wonder I don't want to get out of bed most mornings.
  If my thoughts are powerful enough to pull me down every morning, then perhaps my mind is powerful enough to lift me up. So, today I am exercising my minds ability to be positive and enthusiastic about my life.

"Buddha for Mum" 08/24/2009. Ink drawing, Matchbox & Bottle Cap. by Jane Brooks

found

On a run this morning i looked to find a leaf that stopped me, I picked it up and carried it carefully between my thumb and index finger up hill and all the way down. I needed to share it with val, I knew she would love the circular patterns. As I ran down the hill i thought about the beauty of the disease that spotted the leaf. It was now an extraordinary leaf and stood out among thousands of fallen leaves on my run.

A perfect life looks good and might feel good to live. I don't know and won't know how it would feel. All I know is that my life among my friends and family is a mixture of perfect and imperfect, ease and disease and it is rich and swirled with extraordinary moments.