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When life gets busy and things seem so far beyond my control I do a mental check, are all my plates still spinning up in the air? I have this image that when things are good I am like an old fashioned circus act where I am spinning plates on a pole, each new task or worry is a new plate. When things are bad I see broken pottery crashing around me and my sticks have stopped spinning. All of you must have your own image or analogy to represent how you are feeling at any given time, but that is ours.

So much of what we define as lazy is actually self care. We are so intent on being the best and the most amazing all the time, but it gets exhausting. In the United States we are so competitive about how busy we are. I measure how good my week was by how much time I had to actually make dinner and if I got my little humans off to bed with a book AND on time! Extra points if they brushed well! We are humans and need downtime, so that little nap on the couch, or the 5 minutes in your room after you pick up the kids, all necessary!

Last week we talked about how uncomfortable we are with silence, but over the last week, the topic of how necessary silence is has been repeating in our thoughts. When everything is going wrong, a quiet space is the perfect way to find your way again. When your anxiety and stress is off the charts, quietness and solitude are soothing and healing. When you are supporting someone in pain, being quiet and listening is perhaps the best gift you can give. Silence, while often uncomfortable, can be a space where healing, calmness and peace settle like a balm.

The other day, completely out of my comfort zone, I went on a “hike and yoga” morning get together, knowing no one. Having recently started following a particular yoga teacher on Instagram at the recommendation of my yoga instructor, I see that they are doing a hike and yoga session at a park near my house. In these situations my go to is to try and find a friend to go with me. No luck, so then I go back and forth, go, not go, go. So I wake up early, recheck the date and time and decide to do it.

We live in an uncertain world, we like to think that there are certain givens, such as safety, but the truth is, and it grieves us to even admit this, that isn’t always the case. As we are seeing with the Measles outbreak, people feel they are smarter than scientists and don’t vaccinate, putting babies, elderly and those with immune issues at great risk. We are seeing people go to worship at their Mosque, Temple and Churches and never come home. We see children go off to school and never return.