JUST CHILLING

    

            This year our family didn’t go anywhere or do anything special for Spring Break. No trip to the Gulf coast or Big Bend. No major house-maintenance project. Instead, we just took advantage of those few days when Mateo didn’t have to go to school, and Zet didn’t have to work, to hang out at home alone together. “Just chilling,” as our son, Mateo, might say.

 BEING AT HOME
            Now that he’s a freshman in high school, with his own interests (running track; being with his girl friend; banging on his guitar; hanging out with his buddies), we don’t get to hang out together as a family as much as before. But it was still delicious to just be around each other, moving through separate, but tangential orbits that intersected periodically during the course of the week. Taking naps. Hanging out. Going for long walks along the stretch of river that runs through our neighborhood. Watching a couple of movies on Netflix. Cooking favorite foods.

 BEING OUTDOORS
            The thing I enjoyed most was sitting quietly outdoors for a few minutes a day. Not “doing” anything. Just sitting without a purpose. Not even meditating or breathing consciously or standing Chi Gong or any of the other restful, re-energizing spiritual practices that I usually do whenever I can. Nope. This is a little different. Just doing absolutely nothing. No big deal. Simply sitting alone for 10-15 minutes at a time, observing whatever occurs as the breezes stir the trees, the clouds swirling in slow motion, birds twirling around building nests. Stepping outside of the whirlwind of tasks and treasures that usually consume so much of my time and energy, and watching as the budding leaves seem to sprout from the bare branches right before my very eyes. Warm sun and cool winds, taking my breath away time and again, with the sheer freshness of it all.

 FEELING GRATEFUL
            The week of official Spring Break may behind us, but it still feels great to take a “Spring Brake” periodically. As in putting on the brakes. Pausing just long enough to get grounded and reconnect with mySelf, my surroundings, Mother Earth. Ahhh…
 Wishing you the time and space to take a “Spring Brake” too,

                  Rudi