Welcome, welcome, welcome.

My whole life, I’ve been in a rush.

Speeding from one thing to the next. Crossing things off the to do list, and then right onto the next — without so much as a breath in between. Always racing, and yet… still somehow behind.

I wish I could tell you that I now have this rushing thing “all figured out.”

Well, actually, I don’t wish that.

Because now I can share my first unsexy — yet totally worth it — promise: 40 Early Mornings is a journey. You never really arrive. You never get it “right.” (Which means — good news — you can never get it “wrong.”) It’s not a quick fix. It’s not a one-and-done.

This concept of practice — which is at the heart of 40 Early Mornings — is DAILY.

It’s like brushing your teeth, doing the dishes, or walking your dog.

And it’s also like breathing.

Such as the breath you are breathing right now.

This breath. And this breath. And, yes, this one too.

So even today, if my first impulse is to always be rushing, as long as I’m practicing, I’m really just in relationship it. Sometimes I’m rushing. And sometimes, I’m able to pause, adjust my pace, and be present instead of always looking ahead to what’s next.

I’ll take it.

My daily practice becomes my reference point, my place to check in and take my own pulse. How’s my pace? Where’s my worry taking me today? Where’s my attention? What’s my WHY to be present today?

In Week 1, we ARRIVE, in order to start to create that daily reference point.

Yes, a whole week to simply land in this space. To not need to have it all figured out or get this done perfectly. (This whole week, in fact, asks us to give ourselves a LOT of grace.)

After all, these are Rumi’s words that got us here in the first place:

A new moon teacher gradualness, 
and deliberation. 
And how one gives birth to oneself, slowly. 
Patience with small details makes perfect 
a large work, like the universe. 
What nine months of attention does for an embryo, 
forty early mornings will do 
for your gradually growing wholeness. 

One of my teachers, Shawn Parell, who was an absolute grace-giving angel for me when I showed up in DC totally broken into bits in 2010, taught me a lot about arriving in the moment.

She would begin her class in the gentlest way — as we all piled in from our super important jobs, busy & hustling, stressed & burnt out, usually 5 minutes late — with what she called “the process of arrival.”

I had never known there could be such a thing!

A whole process to simply arrive? To transition from one thing to the next?

But really, when I thought about it, it made so much sense — to create a process, a ritual around arrivals.

Because, honestly, transitions can be so vulnerable and … hard.

Whether it’s simply ending your work day and moving into your evening. Arriving home to visit family at the holidays (or having them come to you!). Moving through Big Life Moments like death, breakups, breakdowns, or breakthroughs. Heck, even the change of seasons can be challenging.

So this whole week, bit by bit, day by day, breath by breath, we simply ARRIVE.

Rather than drinking from the fire house, I’ll explain each day, what this program is and what it could be for you. And also.. what 40 Early Mornings is not.

I know we want answers NOW (me too!), but things take the time they take. Rather than rushing into this, we can trust that it will unfold in a cadence that makes good sense. That also might challenge and stretch us. And we can stay curious enough to take it as it comes. To trust we’ll get what we came here for.

Or not.

It’s totally up to you ;)

But you made it this far already.

What’s required of you next?

• Stay curious. Notice what you’re drawn toward. Notice your resistance. Both are good teachers. And honestly, just open this email every morning & you good 🙃

• Take a look at your week right now and block off a 30-minute window of time for yourself each day. This is your practice time. Obviously, I suggest “early morning.” But that means something different for all of us. I just find that if I can practice before I let “the day get to me,” before I get swept away by my inbox or my mind or my to do list, I have a better chance of being grounded throughout my day, of not abandoning myself completely.

  • If you need help, here are some ideas about how you might find those 30 minutes — see which one feels most like you. Do it as soon as you open your eyes, still lying down in bed before you reach for anything else. Do it after you walk the dog. Do it with your morning cup or coffee or mug of tea. Do it after your kids go to school. Do it when you land at work. Do it in the parking lot before you leave the driveway or when you pull into work. Do it at 11am when you’re so far gone by the whirl of the day, you need to remember your own name again. And if all else fails, do it before you go to bed that night!

    1. You can start with “good enough, that will do” (aka, drop the perfectionism story around this). You can also set yourself up to be better than “fine,” and let these daily practices be STUNNING for you. Light the candle. Clear out some space for yourself. Put some flowers in a vase. We’ll talk more about it this week — I love setting folks up with gorgeous practice spaces.

• Here’s what you need for daily practice this week:

  • Your 30 minute window each day.

  • Your device that you will read your daily emails on.

  • A pen and paper (a blank notebook if you have one).

• The basic blueprint of daily practice:

  • Read the daily essay (you just did that ;))

  • Practice the audio recording of that day’s meditation. We start at 5 minutes and work our way up to 20! It’s right below the body of this email.

  • Prompted written reflection, aka journaling, which will take you 5-15 minutes most days. Except Sundays. When, instead of writing in your journal just for you — you’ll fill out the week’s questionnaire via google doc form. This becomes our shared written record. A key accountability piece. And grounds our 1:1 sessions together. It also helps thematically set the table for hte week ahead. Sundays take a little longer. I’d say 20-40 minutes for the form, linked below.

Ok. So much more to come. Just enough for now.

I’ll see you right back here tomorrow morning,
Cath