Today I do not feel like I hit my stride meditation-wise. I focused, lay still, gave myself ample time and yet 20 minutes came and went and I still feel pulled in so many different directions.
Friday’s are usually my days of respite. I add to my calendar early in the week, while as the week progresses I steadily remove distractions, obligations, and events. Unfortunately, this week the opposite has happened. I am playing catch-up and while I’m grateful to have the opportunity to accomplish so much I feel like I pressed pause early in the week, or more accurately, my schedule filled up so quickly that every item that was not urgent got pushed further and further down the totem poll and then here we are at Friday and I have a pile of projects to complete.
The thing is, time doesn’t stop but I can. I can stop placing these extensive expectations upon myself. I attended a talk by Diane von Furstenberg, fashion icon and creator of the wrap dress, virtually, of course. DVF talked about having a magic wand. We all have a magic wand, the ability to use our magic wand to connect people to one another. Simply by making introductions or sharing the work of someone we appreciate makes magic in the lives of others. Often, if you use this magic wand frequently enough you will find it also has a boomerang effect.
And in an attempt to both share this wisdom and promptly implement it in my own life, I rushed out to share this wisdom and connect some friends. The lesson is not that this blew up in my face or that I did and now I have my own miraculous business venture. No, what happened was I watched this inspiring talk on a Friday – it was scheduled for Wednesday – Equal Pay Day for those of you keeping track at home. The number of days women have worked in the new year and earned nothing in comparison to the dollars that men bring home. The date gets further and further down into the year if you account for race, which is its own devastating reality. Pay women equally – what we’re after is equity.
And here again the idea has snowballed. Inspired, engaged, a whole other pile of obligations, overwhelmed, exhausted, it’s Friday. Deep breath. I’m eager to accomplish so much, tell me you’ve felt this way too? So eager that you don’t know where to begin.
There was a wind storm in our neighborhood last night, and of course it was trash day the following morning. So there is trash and recycling materials strewn all over the place. It is particularly irritating in the woodland areas and walkways. However, having not brought gloves or bags on our journey my son and I left the mess, only occasionally commenting on the junk everywhere. We agreed that next time we will bring some tools and clean up some of the mess.
There was something we could do, and this warms my heart, we saved worms. Like most windstorms there was also rain and several worms became stranded as the day heated up and they found themselves stranded in the middle of sidewalks or driveways, so we picked them up and placed them in the grass, hopeful they would make their own ways back to the earth. And that is what I intend to do with DVF’s magic wand analogy today. I saved worms. It feels a lot like that starfish analogy.
The old man said to the young girl throwing starfish into the sea, “You can’t save them all it won’t make a difference.”
She shrugs and says, “It made a difference to that one.
I will do that today and will save the rest of my magic for Monday, after I have had a chance to rest. Happy Friday friends, I’m exhausted.
