As I mentioned in a previous post, my daughter met up with a friend she doesn’t get to see very often. They met on the college campus last year, and the friend moved away to attend another campus. The best thing to come out of … Continue reading In An Instant
To prepare for sleep, I chose to halt the flow of day into evening. Work was one of them, which was mentioned in the previous post, and we’ll dive deeper into working from home soon. Today we’ll keep walking toward a good night’s sleep.
You know my love for coffee, and the coffee bar was always flowing, until I got serious about a good night’s sleep. It didn’t take long to realize coffee was making me restless in bed. It was tough to admit, but my mind is fueled by coffee, so it would not relax if I drank it late in the day. I would lay in bed and continue thinking just like it was morning.
Now, I stop the flow of coffee by 2:00 pm and sometimes before noon, which is instrumental in a good night’s sleep. I’m learning a good night sleep takes discipline and saying no to the flesh. One day, my daughter offered me the rest of her Chocolate Cold Brew after 4:00 pm, and sadly I poured it down the drain.
Life will tempt you on your journey. Walking out to the mailbox, this was waiting.
Normally, I squeal with excitement when Blue Bottle arrives. A month ago, I would have raced into the house and started the kettle for a Chemex. My excuse would be, “I haven’t tried this blend before!” It’s tempting to give up a good night’s sleep, but when we know better, it’s time to do better.
I watched my actions as the morning coffee flowed into afternoon and then evening. When it became night, I felt trepidation because I had crossed my boundaries that day and wasn’t sleepy. I hadn’t had a successful night’s sleep in months and I don’t believe we’re supposed to dread going to bed!
There is a flow to this life, and being mindful of what flows into my day and at what time is an intricate part of having a good night’s sleep. Coffee now has a slow flow and a stopping point.
Maybe it’s not coffee for you, but if you’re having trouble relaxing your mind to fall asleep, there’s something in your body from the day that thinks it needs to stay awake. Know your flow.
You can smell the coffee. Not that it’s being made, but that so much has been ground and brewed, it lingers. The coffee bar is in the middle of the house, so you could say, it’s at our core.
This morning as I was writing down my completed actions of the self trust cultivator, everything I did took place in the core of the house. Fed and watered the animals in the hallway. Brushed my teeth in the hall bath, and began a load of laundry in the hallway. Started the Chemex at the coffee bar.
What took place in the core, fed everyone’s core.
There’s a flow in life, and it starts at the core.
Our cat let me know his water bowl was empty by hopping in the kitchen sink trying to find water. He knows what a water spout looks like, and was hoping to find some in the sink. It took me a minute to figure out what he was doing, but when I put him on the floor, he went to the bathtub, another water source.
Then I saw his empty water bowl.
When the balance and flow of life coincide, it feels like everything is lined up and level. After I took this picture, it was reassuring to see how everything lined up. The level is sitting on the corner of my desk, and that wouldn’t be good to have a desk off center. It would effect the balance of every task at the desk.
My first full-time job was working in a custom frame shoppe. I learned so many life skills with that job. Every cut of the frame, glass and mat was based on precision, and performed by hand. We relied on math for it to fit together perfectly.
When cutting the mat to go around the picture, we’d leave 1/2 an inch more mat at the bottom. Once in the frame, the mat looked equal on every side, but adding that 1/2 an inch at the bottom is what made it look even to the naked eye.
Thanks to that job, I have a keen sense of awareness in being centered. I lay that little level in the picture above on everything. After hanging a picture, it gets the level laid on it.
If you feel off centered, or unbalanced, start at the core and then take in your surroundings. The core craves balance, but our surroundings can have a negative effect on that. It could be something like a picture hanging crooked, or a piece of furniture that’s been knocked off center.
Our wood floor has a flow of the grain, so all the rectangular tables in our home are pointing in that direction. They are flowing with the grain in the wood floor, along with the center of the house which is like a long rectangular core.
Find a small level and lay it on all the areas of your life.
My hope for you is to live a level life.
I’m still going through, cleaning my archives. I’ve gone through 2014, 2015, 2016 and am on March 2017. I’ll share some thoughts once I’m done, but my best advice for now is…Don’t wait six years.
I took this meme out of an archived post to share with you. I went through a phase of using way to many memes in my posts. 😍
This morning called for a strong Chemex.
To have the Chemex, I had to tackle something new. Their square filter. I only have one regular filter left, but there’s an entire box of the square ones in the pantry. Why you might ask?
Because I never figured out how to use them.
This goes back to the whole ‘follow the instructions‘ thing. YouTube to the rescue.
The original Chemex filter is folded into a square. I always thought you had to unfold it to make it work. Now, there are some baristas who get really fancy with it, and refold it, but the Chemex is such a simple process, I knew this filter had to be simple as well.
It’s ridiculously simple.
You don’t unfold it at all. You simply separate the layers. Three layers on the spout, and one lays on the rest of the opening.
I’m not sure why I thought it was going to be difficult.
Maybe it’s like a lot of things in life. You don’t know until you know, but when we know better, we get to do better.
My daughter is out of town this week.
I’m trying to take care of myself without her. She’s in charge of protein shakes, and I’m coffee. This morning I had to make the protein shake by using the Ninja, on my own.
The Ninja blender is the best blender I’ve ever used. You could drop in an iceberg, and it would emulsify it. I nearly sliced my finger off the first time I cleaned it, so it’s had my respect ever since!
But, I did it. I began my day with protein, and then moved onto Chemex. She’ll be proud.
My daughter reads instructions. I’m a dedicated instruction reader when it comes to putting things together, and how to properly use machinery, but somewhere along life’s journey I stopped.
When my daughter is here she makes the shake, and I clean the blender, but I know better than to get anywhere near it’s blades.
I thought I was so smart squirting dish-washing liquid in, filling it with warm water, and turning it back on, like making a shake, but with bubbles.
After it runs for a while, simply rinse it, take it apart, and let it dry.
My daughter said, “Yes ma’am. That’s how you’re supposed to clean it. I read it in the instructions.”
I need to go back to reading the instructions. 😀
We’ve enjoyed cool mornings this week in Texas.
The front door is open so the screen door is being enjoyed. As I look around the house, I see things that need to be done. The floor is so dirty thanks to the doggos, but that dirt is not going anywhere without my assistance, so it can wait.
I chose the Chemex for this morning’s coffee enjoyment. I just love how it’s called, ‘a vessel of coffee’. The café cups were sitting at eye level on the top part of the coffee bar. I plucked one down and poured myself a moment.
I can have a moment all by myself.
And to be perfectly honest, it’s what I prefer nowadays. I haven’t met a man I’m willing to share my life with. My life is so quiet, you could call it serene. That doesn’t seem to be the norm these days, with lives being dictated by technology.
I don’t even know where my phone is at the moment.
The café cups came as a set of two that I use with my darling daughter, but she’s not going to be here forever, nor would I want her to be. She will eventually live her life to the fullest without me everyday, so who will use the second café cup?
I’m depending on God to show me this time.
Until then, I’m content in my moment for one.
I was thinking about her comment while making the morning Chemex. It was in response to this meme I posted for SC Lourie. She was having a hard time being a single Mom, but what stuck with me the most was, “I feel like I … Continue reading That is Enough
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