Soul Nourishment

1. Making. A pot of soup, a hat on the needles, a page in the photo album, a list of self-understanding. When I make something, I feel engaged in this heart beating undeniably. Sometimes making settles and grounds me, like when I knit all snowy day long. Sometimes making fills me with the colour mauve, like when I start something I've wanted to create for a long time. When I started our wedding love album last night, I grew mauve and candlelit. And when I went to bed I felt satisfied.

And there is list making. Not to-do's, To Knows:

Gratitudes

What are five qualities I love about myself?

A wish list

Ten things I want to do and haven't allowed

Just for today, say yes to:

How do I comfort myself?

    Our wedding album becoming in time for our fifth anniversary. 

2. Early grey tea with cream and honey. Yum. My favorite moment is the first sip. That's when the bergamot tastes most vibrant and springy inside me. It's so good, I can only stare out the window as I drink it.

3. Dancing. Of course. What else are we meant to do with these bodies of ours? That moment when the music absorbs my movement or the moment when I enter the sandy desert drumbeat dream. Or when I open my eyes and laugh, because his body is alive with rhythm and his mind is lost, too.

4. Writing a letter with my hand to someone I have known a long time. Telling them a story: here I am, today. I love you.

5. Walking. Back soft, mind softening, realizing I can look up, seeing the earth. The complete joy from the dog. The sense of leaving things behind, of moving on. Process. And there's Bear rock. That's a special place after a tidy walk up the mountain, over the creek and through the forest.

If you are lucky enough to be in the mountains, you are lucky enough.

- Madelyn Mulvaney

6. The river. I feel strong when I visit her. 

7. When I'm telling them a story on the couch and I feel the pressure of a little hand on my leg: he feels safe, I think. He feels at home. When we're singing a song and she is grinning, eyes shining, so delighted my voice changes with joy. That I get to be with them, a friend, an artist, an elder, for my job. That is amazing. 

8. A bowlful of berries--so much better than anything I can cook up, every time. In the winter, spoonfuls of sunshine. In the summer, by the fistful.

9. Laughing with a friend. Oh, such good laughing. Grateful for one friend in particular--when I've done something ridiculous, she'll really, really laugh with me. This is especially helpful when I'm feeling angry. 

10. My morning ritual: stretch, meditate, answer: How am I today? What is needed? What, if any, obstacles are in the way? Drink tea. 

11. Writing. Here. There, in my book. On a scrap piece of paper when between books. Sometimes, writing is the only thing that can bring me home. 

12. Yasodhara Ashram. Headed there this weekend, grateful for the impulse and my courage to put everything down and run away for three days. Gonna get quiet and spacious again. Gonna do some hard work and see this tricky personality a bit more clearly. Gonna dream. Gonna reconnect with god/dess. Gonna forgive. 

May you be nourished,

K