It is a new day.
Maybe there's dew on the grass outside.
The sun has risen or is rising.
Sometimes we are met immediately with little feet or furry feet scurrying around,
Asking for things,
Needing our help,
Creating lots of noise.
Sometimes we're met with the buzz and the beeping of our alarm clock telling us it's time to go.
Sometimes we are met with the aroma of the nutty brew that's happening in our kitchen.
But no matter how your day meets you and how the world waits for you,
The world can do just that.
It can wait.
Wait for you to focus,
To give yourself this huge gift of time and of space,
Of attention to what it is that you need this morning.
We are part of a web of beauty,
Of intricate-ness,
Of lots of productivity and lots of bounty.
But we are integral to ourselves.
So give yourself this space to take a few deep breaths,
To focus in on the weight of your body against the earth as you sit,
Either in a chair or on a cushion or on the edge of your bed,
And take deep inhalations and exhalations,
Reminding yourself of where it is your feet are planted.
There is no time like now.
You will never get this moment,
This breath,
To live again.
So feel it.
Let the oxygen course through your veins.
Let the quality of your mind relax into calm.
Your mind may begin to run away with you.
We spin webs of narratives in our brains.
It's only natural.
It's what they do as organs,
Just like our heart pumps blood to our bodies.
Our brains are constantly trying to interpret and make sense of the world around us.
But what a gift to start your day with a pause,
With a moment of reorienting and paying attention to your body,
To the sounds of the room around you,
To the air temperature,
To the fact that you are living,
You are being,
And that breath continues to come into your lungs and back out into the world.
You are you,
Worthy,
Part of this world,
Part of this day.
You are right here.
And it is enough.
As you take this presence of mind into the next bit of your day,
Pay attention to just one thing that maybe you don't always notice,
This sense of mindfulness about the world and life around you.
Maybe you feel the warmth of the coffee and the mug in a different way in your hands this morning.
Maybe you pause in traffic on your way to work to notice the trees beside the street in a way that you have not before.
Maybe you watch the face of a child or a parent or a coworker and you notice the features of their face,
The wrinkles on the side of their eyes,
The creases in their smile that you maybe didn't really notice fully and soak in before.
You are here.
It is now.
It is enough.
