5/29/15 Observation (She Did it Her Way)

Comedy.

I was sitting on the bus and two young children--brother and sister--got on with their nanny. The children looked to be about 5 or 6 and each has a paper airplane. I was already sensing a bit of tension between them--the I'm-annoyed-with-you-sibling tension. And sure enough, a few minutes later when the little girl's airplane fell to the ground, the little boy picked it up, promptly eliciting a very strong (and slightly drawn out for effect), "NOooo!" from his sister. She then proceeded to take the airplane from him, place it back on the ground and then make a point of picking it up herself. I hadn't been prepared for that reaction. And so I laughed.

5/28/15 Observation (Squirrel)

This morning, as I was walking to the subway station, I happened to glance over towards a side street and saw a squirrel. Well, initially, from my angle, I just saw most of its bottom half laying in the street--a bit off center, if you will. Curious as to what its top half was doing, (it was, after all, lying in the street) I craned my neck over a few parked cars for a better view. What I saw made me smile smile emoticon The squirrel was engaged in eating a rather large piece of corn on the cob grin emoticon I couldn't help feeling pretty happy for him/her grin emoticon

Anyways, hope your day is filled with smiles smile emoticon

5/23/15 Observation (Hide and Seek at the Botanical Garden)

Little girl and slightly older boy decide to play hide and seek. Boy hides behind a tree (plenty to choose from seeing as we're at the gardens). "Ready or not, here I come," the little girl calls out. Suddenly, Guardian (mom?) appears. She calls out to the girl and the little one goes to her. And then the Guardian calls out to the tree concealing the little boy (totally blowing his cover). But she is greeted with silence and no signs of movement from behind said tree. After a little while, the Guardian begins to make her way to the tree. Suddenly, and somewhat cheekily I might add, the little boy abandons his tree in exchange for another one a bit of a ways away. As he darts behind his new found tree, I can see the smile on his face. And I can't help but laugh.

5/23/15 Entry (Jog-Walking)

I jogged-walked today. I left the house at about 5:05 am, walked down to the corner and began jog-walking. Actually, at first I was jogging, but it eventually became jog-walking. And I am completely fine with this.

All this was brought on by a conversation I had a few days ago with someone who's been running now for about 4 years. She started doing it as a way to get in some free exercise and then was able to just stick with it. She actually began with a friend and their pact was just to run and talk and pay no mind to going faster until they were both ready. Basically they gave themselves permission to be slow and just be there in the moment with and for each other.

I've tried running--ahem--jogging in the past. It inevitably morphed into speed walking grin emoticon I remember one time I made plans to run with someone who professed to be a slow runner. Well, even she ended up pointing out how slow I was. I never attempted to run with her again tongue emoticon

The really great thing about my jog-walking this morning (aside from actually committing to getting out of the house to do it), is I kept wanting to do it. Even when my right foot started to hurt, I slowed down, took time to stretch it, and, despite the resulting limping, still found myself wanting to get back to jog-walking. I think the pain/limp may be the result of the top part of my shoe coming down on some veins during the "running" motion. Either that or that right foot is just amazingly tight and requires lots of stretching. I plan on figuring it out because despite all stops and starts and the pain, I was really super proud of myself. So much so, that I want to continue to do this at least through the summer, on weekend mornings right before sunrise. And when i get out there, the goal is to jog-walk until I can do it for the entire route without stopping and then maybe consider picking up the speed.

It's important for me to mention that once I got out there, I was praying for assistance to keep pushing through it. Heck, I prayed to get out of bed and go outside in the first place. And afterwards, as I limped back into the house, stretched and enjoyed the best tasting water I've had to date, I was super grateful--the whole time thinking, "We did it!" ("We" being me, God, the angels, guides, etc)

Looking forward to doing it with "them" again tomorrow.

5/10/15 Entry (Happy Mother's Day)

For the love, the hugs, the discipline, For the patience, the laughs, the nurturing, For your presence-- physically & energetically, For the cooking, the cleaning, the entertaining, and For the (sometimes hard to understand while in the moment) lessons, on behalf of those that call you, Mom, Mommy, Mother, Mama, Ma, with a heart full of gratitude, love & respect, I thank you. Happy Mother's Day, and thank you for all you do every day😘