Day 22: My Many Colored Days

On Bright Red Days how good it feels to be a horse and kick my heels!

On other days I'm other things. On Bright Blue Days I flap my wings.

Some days, of course, feel sort of Brown. Then I feel slow and low, low down.

Then comes a Yellow Day and Wheeee! I am a busy, buzzy bee.

Gray Day....Everything is gray. I watch. But nothing moves today.

One of my favorite Dr Suess book is the lesser known "My many colored days. " I read it often to my kids to help them have another way to identify emotions. 

Today was supposed to be a yellow day.  Chapel with Miles,  lifting with Eddie,  writing class with Eddie,  work meetings, house projects and gardening with Zander in the afternoon.  

I did some of the things but the rest of the day I was curled up in a hoodie.  Bummed.  Such beautiful weather and my body is not up to doing anything. 

I made the most of it.  I turned on hymns and rocked in the hammock swing. Sunlight on my face.  Grateful for the sandbox that Zander played in, the swing under me,  the blue sky,  the new green,  the soft music and the nice sunlight.  

If I can't get anything done,  I'll at least enjoy the moment of rest.  

As a Midwestern girl,  so much of my identity is wrapped up in work. My family worked for fun. Giant piles of landscaping materials showed up in the yard and all us kids shoveled and hauled them whence they needed to go.  Trees chopped into firewood and nearly stacked on the side of the house.  Work for the family business, a solid part of family vacation -- don't worry,  we also played hard -- but at least one day was spent on opportunistic work since we were in the neighborhood. 

Work feels good for me.  Like exercise. Using my body. Getting stuff done. Helping people.  Making the world a better place.  Even my hobbies are productive - gardening,  painting,  playing music,  learning, hiking,  traveling. 

Sitting still is hard. Especially sitting still and just not doing anything. Maybe I can get some spiritual practice in or reflection or discernment. When my body doesn't work,  my mind is there to work with. 

But today.  Mostly I just dropped the list and let it be. I enjoyed the weather and just let myself rest and heal. And I think,  that was my spiritual practice today.