What A Difference A Break Makes.

This day is glorious, and I’m basking in it. I can actually receive its beauty and generative offering. It is truly a lovely day- a crisp bright blue sky, soft cicada soundscape, gentle breeze blowing through the healthy and sizeable trees, friendly folks and neighbors just outside my door. And the beautiful pond that offers reflection and space, perspective and movement.

The moon is new, and the Jewish New Year is right here right now.

A few weeks ago, I was suffering. My head was spinning, full of anxiety, judgement, anger, and generally, words words words, self talk, random thoughts, chatter, monkey mind.

Not much has outwardly changed. The world is still in multiple terrible crises. I’m sure you know about them (and maybe more than I do!).

I still feel the terror of these changing times. I am not shutting out the reality that exists in our current days.

What has changed is internal. I carved out some substantial time (just over 2 weeks!) to take a break. To rest, do a lot of nothing. To actively receive, restore in nature, and to empty my mind through daily meditation practices. I did not look at the news, my inbox, my calendar nor my texts (at least not in a frenzied, compulsive way). I got plenty of sleep and exercise. My focus was not on work and productivity, but on the being and feeling state, on the emptying, rather than the filling. I gave my system a rest.

I have been working with being with challenging emotions and world events, holding them alongside my inner resources, and finding my heart’s power again- gently and patiently. I feel like I am in a recovery/healing process.

The world right now requires us to find ourselves again and again. And sometimes, to take a deeper dive, stepping away from the churn of it all, the overwhelm and the unfortunate systems that are in place and tetrissed together in some kind of complicated puzzle that I don’t yet know how to solve.

I offer you the simple practice of taking a breath.

“Breathing in, I am aware of my inbreath. Breathing out, I am aware of my outbreath”

I also offer you the traditional Jewish custom of dipping apples into honey. May this time of late summer and entry to autumn bring a sweet reset, a turning inwards, and a simplifying. Empty and renew!

Find your sweetness- trust that your heart is there, powerful, soft, and full of Love.