Find your aaaahhh moment

There are few sounds more calming than bamboo wind chimes. Something about their tone, something in their subtle music, is so soothing. Outside my office door, my little wind chimes are dancing in the breeze. The only way I was able to hear them was to stop typing and get still. To listen. And as soon as I did that, a feeling of ease came to me. Just that tiny moment of being present. It’s not an ah-hah moment. It’s a aaaahhhhh moment. We all need these.

I don’t know about you, but it’s been a hard week. Full of appointments. Lots of demands. Many balls to keep in the air. Somehow, miraculously, I remembered to breathe, hike, and pause for meditation every morning. I don’t know how I did this except through determination not to fall prey to the notion that I didn’t have time to take care of myself.

Yesterday, as I was driving from one appointment to the next, I saw a wheelchair-bound woman making her way along the sidewalk. She paused and maneuvered herself to the edge of someone’s yard. Leaning over , she pulled a rose toward her face, buried her nose in the huge pink bloom with an expression of pure bliss. Clearly an aaaahhhh moment.

This week, take some time to find your aaahhhh moment. Find your rose. Hear your wind chimes. Don’t follow your bliss–be your bliss. Aaaahhhh.