Day 2,982

Growth:

Something about today really had me dialed in from the standpoint of presence. As I think ahead to what I’ll write about tonight I’m torn between several (& will likely use them all shortly). There were more moments of focused presence than I’ve had in a while. Not sure what the magic was but I’ll definitely keep thinking on this.

Appreciation:

Something I’ve really started to appreciate more and more is the way we balance out our time as a family. Over the past couple of years (maybe more) we still spend a majority of our time together, but we also split into triads and twos of all combinations with some level of regularity. It seems as if this time in the smaller group helps all of us with our relationships with the rest of the family. It seems counterintuitive to building family dynamics, but that focused time with a smaller segment seems to allow us to get to know each other better and more deeply rather than having the gravitational force of our normal whole family dynamics pull us where we always go. Not sure how or why it started but it seems to be working well!

Presence:

Whew!!! Where do I start today? As I’ve already said, there were many moments of focused presence today! Here are some of the more memorable which come to mind,

• Walking in a winter wonderland in the woods with a coffee in my hand while hiking with Becky and Leia.
• Seeing a woodpecker only yards away on a tree going to town on the bark.
• Enjoying the sight of the hunter retrieving ducks amongst his decoys.
• So many smiles as I greeted at church this morning.
• Joking with Becky while putting up Christmas lights.
• Seeing the huge full moon rise slowly as we took Leia on her second walk.
• Watching tundra swans fly in a large V over our house.
• Eating dinner as a complete family.
• Getting one last hug from Dominic before he went into the train station.
• Riding home with Gavin while he practiced driving on the ice for the first time.
• The quiet calm of typing this blog.

So many engaging moments of presence today!

Thanks!!!