“Accomplish the tasks! Send the newsletter! Do the laundry! Get ahead,” my linear brain tells me with urgency. I make the to do list, hoping that getting it all out of my brain will help: taxes, get eggs, make ham casserole, send syrup, finish thank you notes, clean out the fridge. It doesn’t help, only amplifies the urgency. My chest constricts.
“Slow down. Soften. Find spaciousness. Watch the snowflakes. Light the candle,” my heart and body counter. I make the “to be” list: Relaxed. Aware. Inspired. Ease-ful. Playful. Joyful. Present. Creative. Connected. Slow. My heart opens.
The magic is in finding the balance between the two. I’d say my life as a whole has been 70% dominated by my to do list. Today, on this Leap Day, I give myself permission to embrace my to be list.
Distracted by doing I almost missed the crowd of snowflakes outside my window falling upward resting for a moment suspended in time and space saying hello as they lazily rode the wind up, down, across, spiraling sinking slowly soft, sweet snowflakes reminding me how to be.