Starting Now: Start #1: Gifts 534...

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Start #1: Gifts 534...

534. Sleep. 8 hours of sleep. Not uninterrupted, but sleep.

535. Staying home with just Emmy while Andy went to watch Lily at gymnastics. She helped me make a smoothie. I got to watch her peel her own hard-boiled egg all by herself, then run to her bathroom sink to rinse it off before she ate it. We watched Benji. Our Emmy is so rough and tumble, yet so sensitive; it nearly made me cry to see her chin quiver when she knew Benji was sad in one part of the movie. We grocery shopped in the playroom, Emmy rung me up at her cash register, then we took our grocery sack to the play kitchen and cooked donuts - Emmy flipped hers over with a spatula all by herself. I fully immersed myself in play with her, which was so entertaining for both of us that we laughed wholeheartedly with mouths open and heads thrown back.

536. A gorgeous hike on a warm, winter weekend in a desert so near-bursting with Spring. Sometimes, the desert is shades of brown, but on a day like today, there was a rainbow of greens surrounding me, all on a backdrop of a bright blue sky.

537. My heart rate up, and over 10,000 steps/4.5 miles today!

538. Sitting on top of the Sonoran Mountain Ranch East Wing Mountain and feeling a peacefulness that felt like a welcome stranger. I closed my eyes and saw the shadows playing in front of my eyes as strands of my hair danced across my face. I opened my eyes and saw pairs of yellow butterflies chasing each other so playfully in and around the desert brush.

539. Deciding to make it a regular habit to walk down with the girls to the neighbors' house on the end of our street to give our freshly cut roses that they will offer in prayer.

540. Lily learning to do today what I am just now learning how to do. Want to elaborate more on this one, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. I keep falling asleep mid-sentence.

1 comment:

JoyfulEatsJanuary 30, 2012 at 3:41 PM
Hearing about desert landscape and butterflies helps transport me to a momentary fantasy world of warmth. Very thankful for a mild winter so far, yet knowing there are several months until its Spring here.
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Welcome to Starting Now

Starting Now, I am starting to finish. Always prolific in my starts, I give birth to many ideas that flutter like a baby bird leaving the nest for the first time. In what feels to be the thick of my life (see "About Me"), there is no better time than now to take flight, to make my finishes as abundant as my starts. I no longer have limitless time or desire to clean up the mental and physical chaos created by starting many things and not fnishing one.

It is my hope that in starting now (for there is only now) and starting here on the page, that I will reach through the initial excitement of a thought, a project, a relationship just beginning, etc.... I will abandon my fear of yet another fallen start, sorrow heavy on my mind and in my heart to instead, give strong wings to my start, life to my lungs, and clarity to my psyche as I soar from one project to the next.

A bit lofty, I realize, but in starting this blog, I am creating accountabilty for myself to show up at the page every day. To show up is to write every day. Create. Improve every day. Learn. Hone the idea, thought, project, progress every day. Grow. And perhaps, learn from others who care to share their ideas on starts and finishes, as together, we spur a community of finishers able to relish in the life and gift - to ourselves and those we share our lives and gifts with - of what we finished, and what we start anew, again, now.

The idea is that as I embark on a start, I will track it here to its finish. Add thoughts if you like, or share your own starts, what you learn along the way, ideas for improvement and efficiency, how you enjoy the journey. For I realize that life is not simply about finishing, but the journey along the way. Yet, I am learning that to finish (something, anything, if even just for today it is folding the laundy and putting it away), boosts my confidence and becomes the catalyst for the birth and life of another start. Another contribution to our beautiful world.

My Life

Mother to Lily and Emmy, two young girls alike only in their adoring, interesting, active, sensitive, loving, creative ways; wife to Andy who has an uncanny resemblance of characteristics to the ways of our girls and who is a recovering (at least that is my wish!) non-finisher like me; caretaker of our human-like Irish red and white setter named Molly, and;

Breathe, ahhhh

Active participant in our lives filled with work, school, deadlines I struggle to meet, homework, cooking, appointments, relationships, laughter, sometimes screaming (we’re all working on that), play, bills, travel, gymnastics, walks with the dog, reading, managing technology and schedules, exercising our independence and learning to work together (and the balance of the two), trying to make healthy choices, and, did I forget anything?

Yes! In honor of my first start, breathing fully (I often forget to do this) and practicing gratitude. Thank you breath, for you give me life!