Moments of Quietude

So, remember a couple of posts ago when I said I'm going to try to live in the moment by being calm in my heart?? It's working!! :)  I've had some recent experiences that have helped me realize what moments of peace look like, feel like. And the peace those moments brought me has lived with me. It's a great feeling. It's making everything better. I'm having a great, busy week and yet my heart doesn't feel busy at all! I am definitely noticing myself being more conscious of the moments I'm living in and just freely enjoying them. My heart isn't busy, it's happy.

Here's how it happened:

Last week I went on a 3 mile walk with one of my best friends. It was perfect! We got to exercise, catch up and be one with nature all at once. Watching the sun go down, smelling the country air and feeling the crisp fall breeze…it doesn't get more peaceful than that!

{doesn't this just make your heart be still?}

Then, this past weekend, I went for a little weekend getaway to Tennessee. The whole point of the trip was to not think about anything so I took that viewpoint to heart and didn't really think twice about going. I said yes and went with it, which is a little unlike me. This in and of itself made it a bit of a liberating experience that allowed my heart to be free. {Turns out a free heart makes for a calm heart}

You know the phrase "follow your heart" --I personally like "follow your arrow, wherever it points"-- I think it was coined for a reason. Your heart knows what you need. My heart told me to go on this getaway because it knew it would be good for me. And: it was the best thing I've done for myself in a long, long time.  Everyone knows you don't relax on the weekends - you're either catching up on chores or errands, or catching up with friends you lost touch with during the week. That's what we do on weekends, and that's great. But what do you do when you just need to relax? Get a massage? Never a bad idea, of course but, if you're like me, your mind never stops racing, reviewing everything you need to do once you leave. Go on vacation? No, not me. My vacations aren't even all that relaxing. Fun, and necessary, yes. But not relaxing - there's still something to do, somewhere to go, someone to see. There was NONE of that this weekend. Absolutely none. I had nothing to do. I cannot even tell you the last time that happened in my life. I don't remember.  

This weekend I sat on the couch in a log cabin in the Tennessee mountains that overlooked a cove of Ft Loudoun lake. I watched football. I took a two hour nap. And then I took several more cat naps after that. I ate delicious home cooked meal after home cooked meal. We barely left the house and when we did it was to go sit at the dock, or go to the marina for dinner, or take an aimless drive through town. 

We all know that would never happen at home. You feel guilty for relaxing, for not getting something done. This weekend, guilt was not on the itinerary. I didn't think or worry about one thing. Literally. Time stopped, my mind was still. I knew peace. 

{so calm, so quiet}