5:17 am

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5:17 is when the first bird sang outside my window this morning. 5:34 is when the sun rises. By 5:34 I had already had my tart cherry juice, made my coffee, opened up the house to let out the stuffy humid air, and turned on my computer.

I went to bed early (10 pm) so that I could be up and alive by 7ish, but I did not bargain for being awake since 4 am.

I can't say that I don't mind the silence of the early morning. Larry is deep in slumber, the cats did get up with me and eat, and now Shiva is screaming to get back into bed with his favorite human.

It is a rainy day here, a good day to work in the studio, I do have a doc appointment mid day, and will perhaps go and buy a flat skillet for my encaustics on sale at Macy's, and maybe even wander into Barnes and Nobles to sit with a stack of art magazines.

I had been lazy most of yesterday, just taking care of myself. That is something that I have had a hard time learning - to love myself enough to do what I need to do or NOT do to nurture my body and soul. Quite often that means doing less and saying no.
I have lived most of my life going at a breakneck speed, running from the demons of my life, and now that those demons are dead, far away, or banished, I don't have to run as much. In fact, I quite like the leisurely stroll.

On Sundays I have a new ritual, and instead of going to church, I go to yoga. I joke about being a never recovered Catholic, and I have not gone to church on a steady basis since I was 19. I find yoga so much more satisfying, and besides, it is good for my body as well as my soul. And I have never left church feeling so totally stoned and at peace. Yoga means UNION in Hindu, the union with one's consciousness with that of the consciousness of the universe through exercise, breathing, and meditation. Church NEVER did that for me. Instead I would sit thinking about what bad things I had done that would never allow me into "kingdom of heaven". I felt alone, not part of a universal love, not part of the divine God.

Though I am a beginner student of yoga and meditation, I find much peace and joy in those moments that I try and carry on with me. I realize that I can make every moment my heaven on earth, and that each and every thing is part of the divine.

And it is good.

Patti O Light

Photo from a few months ago that I took at Mohonk/altered in Photoshop.
I just had to use it again for this blog!

Comments

Woodstock said…
Could I get a print of that image to hang in my living room? If I can't live upstate yet then upstate can live in my apartment.

xoxo,
Ross
10:33 AM
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