Today, while I am writing this, it is a warm, sunny and beautiful spring day! (Although the office start of spring is not until next week.) I saw the first crocus blooming in my yard! The birds are making their way back north! I've noticed the skunks have become active at night while I walk my dog. A hint of green is being to show in my lawn.
While January 1st begins the New Year, I usually don't get around to thinking about new beginnings until it's sunny and warm. Each spring I notice a Part of me feels antsy to start something new and this Part gets impatient. It wants to abandon projects that are still unfinished. It wants to rush headlong into something else.
The other day while meditating, I noticed that high above, the clouds were racing by, even though it was a windless day down here on earth's surface. As I watched the clouds they reminded me of my own antsy feelings - the clouds hurried by seemingly without thought or goal - abandoning where ever they had been and rushing to get somewhere else. I noticed what it felt like when a Part of me hurried without thought or goal - not a pleasant feeling, but very familiar to me.
Then I shifted my focus and observed the two maple trees out my office window. The trees were bare of leaves and motionless. They seemed to be waiting, patiently. They knew there time to bud and bloom would come, but were not in a hurry to do so. The trees seemed calm, and I noticed the Antsy Part of me calmed also as I observed the trees' patience - not a familiar feeling, but very pleasant to me.
The rest of the day I would purposely glance out the window and breathe in the patience of the trees. Deep inside, in a place of peace within, I knew there was a time for everything and I did not need to hurry without thought to get where I was going. I could finish what I had started. I could wait for the time when something new would present itself to me.
I encourage you to emulate the patience of the trees. There are some things we need to wait for - and waiting calmly knwoing that it will come in it's own time can help our Parts feel calm too.
Namaste,
Amy
Amy Grabowski, MA, LCPC will be hosting a workshop "Freedom from Anxiety" on Sunday May 1st. For more information contact Amy at (773) 929-6262 x11 or awakeningcenter@aol.com
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Thank you for sharing that lovely experience of calmness and patience. It is a helpful reminder that one aspect of being mindful is doing one thing at a time. Wherever we are, just being there, and not longing to be somewhere else. I picture the trees as being present and accepting of where they are in their cycle of greening and hibernating and not longing for it to be different.
ReplyDeleteLovely reminder for us!
Thanks for the post - reminds me to step back and accept that everything happens in its own time.
ReplyDeleteShall I compare thee to a summer's day?
ReplyDeleteThou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet XVIII
Shakespeare