My hope for us during holiday break

Look up! Look up! Look up!

When I woke this morning I could feel my mind looking for the problems I left off on last night. Like a piece of very old gum. Or a cigarette.

Can I let this impulse be here without satisfying it? Not to ignore a part of my experience — that only makes the impulse grow — but to choose which impulses to act on, and which to let be?

The first step, it seems, is to shine a light on it:

"Wow. I woke up today. It's a new day. I have a choice. I see that my habit is to choose to latch on to things which feel bad or "wrong." I don't know why, but there it is. I know that this runs me down and makes me less present with what matter most to me... I'm going to make a different choice. I'm going to give my attention to something else..."

Then, something wonderful happens: I look up.

There is so much for us here.

So much light to take in. I mean this figuratively and literally.

Look up!

We have a choice today. And if we do fall into that dark rut — which we may — we will have another choice the very next moment. (I am finding that at the start of the day the choice is more pronounced — something so special about the dawn.)

My hope for us is that we can use this holiday break to break some old, self-destructive habits in our thinking. How we think determines how we feel. How we feel determines how we live.

My hope is that this little reminder will come to mind a million times during this break —  Look up! Look up! Look up! — and we will go into 2023 with our eyes more open to all that is here for us. ♥️