Greet the Day With Presence

Inhale.

Exhale.

Pause.

Every morning I wake up early. I come downstairs and look out my large windows that open to the eastern sky and I greet the quiet darkness before dawn breaks. I begin to prepare a pot of coffee with freshly roasted coffee beans. As the coffee brews, I feed Rosie, fill her water dish and we step outside. I love the quiet.

The morning does not need to be conquered. It only asks to meet it with your presence. I stand on the earth and look up at the sky and I breathe deeply. I return to myself. I have gratitude for waking up. Gratitude for another day of living my life. A life I have been creating since the day I was born. Amazing how everything is a thread that connects each moment to the next every day, every month, every year has brought me to this now moment.

The sky opens before me as a mirror of my own quiet and grateful heart. Gratitude rises effortlessly when awareness opens to the simple rituals I have cultivated as my day begins. Lighting a candle, brewing coffee, caring for my dog, listening to the birds' early songs, all soften into living moments as I greet the day.

I listen to the quiet neighborhood and the birds beginning to sing in the darkness before dawn's light appears. They have faith in the light. I am not separate from the dawn I am participating in its unfolding. I, too, have faith in the returning light.

Mornings hold the same rhythm I love:

Inhale - the air of the dawn fills my lungs with breath.

Exhale - gratitude for another opportunity to choose the life I want to live.

Pause - as my world slowly and softly arrives around me.

When I stand outside with my feet gently and firmly planted on the ground, I greet and thank Mother Gaia for her heartbeat beneath my feet that grounds and nourishes me. I gaze up towards heaven's opening light and awareness and give thanks.

I am consciously placing myself between earth and sky. The sacred meeting place where their energy spirals up from the earth and down from the sky merging together in my heart.

My heart. Two spirals merging in the sacred meeting place in my heart. I stand in the connection between the two. The quiet center where unity is felt.

Inhale - breath moves in

Exhale - breath moves out

Pause - heart listens

Simple.

Stand.

Breathe.

Listen.

Feel gratitude.