Sleepy, rainy morning

I awoke this morning from a dream that my basement was flooding and that my attic (which I don't have) was leaking buckets of water. I had also bought a baby leopard, which I was informed a bit too late, was really beyond the safe age to own a baby leopard, and that I should probably sell it quickly. As my sleepy brain came out of its haze, I realized that it was thundering, and that Sally was whining in her kennel. I looked enviously at Shakespeare who in his doggy-old-age has become blissfully hard of hearing. He was deeply asleep, unaware of an approaching storm, a howling puppy or anything else around him.

I often have the bad habit of filling my life with too much to do. I like to be busy and on the go. But days like today, when nature rolls her soft clouds into the sky and douses the world with rain, I think about the value of less to do and going slow. When I do less, I have space to ponder, to play with ideas, to listen to the thoughts in my head. I get to sit back and live the details of my life instead of watching them zoom past.

Last night we went downtown to Flat Branch Park. My kids were fascinated with the catfish and gar brought in by the conservation department. They stood and stared in wonder. They felt the smooth, wet skin of the twitching fish as the man held it in the air. They asked, "What is that?" about every detail on that fish. The same happened as we looked at a snake, frogs and the pelts of a fox and an otter. Slowed-down curious brains, soaking in the world around them.

Today instead of rushing to get as much done as I can, I vow to slow down, to revel in a long, summer day, to focus on each task purposefully. I'll watch the rain and all my little leopards playing so that I don't suddenly discover that they too are grown and now it's too late; I missed it.

Happy slowed-down Thursday!
Ms. Hagen