Today is the last official day of “Begin.” (Though I promise you, if you lose your way and you need to “begin again” — It’s okay. No Big Deal. Just Come Back.)

And Saturdays are for moment-to-moment practice, taking what we’re practicing each morning “off our mats” and into the Real Life Wild of your real life!

When I was little, my mom would send us outside to “look for signs of [insert the season here].” (I realize now she just wanted some peace and quiet and was not necessarily trying to shape me into a person who pays attention for a living ;).

So if it was spring, we looked for signs of spring — the first green shoots poking out of the thawing ground. The earliest flowers, the crocuses and the snow drops. Tiny buds on trees.

Where I live in the Hudson Valley, the seasons are honest. Spring is spring. Summer is summer. Fall is fall. And winter is most certainly winter. Each takes up its allocated time and each embodies its quintessential elements.

It is all too easy to go about our day, heads down in our devises or our worries.

Today, take your practice for a literal walk.

If meditation is simply paying attention on purpose, this is the perfect way to take your practice into the wild.

Look for signs of fall. Scents & smells (that earthy decay — what Mary Oliver calls the “unmattering back”). The sights — the vibrant colors of changing leaves, the last of the wild flowers going to seed, the drying grasses. The sounds — geese flying south over head.

Any and all of it that you can take in. TAKE IT IN. This is the whole damn point, I think. That our practice allows us to be present to our lives.

On repeat in my head when I can get out of my own way long enough to simply be present in the Real Life Wild: “don’t miss it. don’t miss it. don’t miss it.”

Even in the tough moments today. Don’t miss it. Don’t miss it. Don’t miss it.

see you right back here tomorrow,
Cath

Meditation: Tomorrow we move into thought-based meditations that are powwwwwerful and 15 minutes long. Luxuriate in this last day of 10 or so moments of body scan.

Reflection: Check back in with your intention. Refine, reflect, claim something bold that you didn’t think you could a week ago. Fresh pen to paper on this today: I, ____________________________, hereby commit to 40 days of showing up for myself, my work, my life in my daily practice because I believe …