Monring Rituals

Morning is a time where we begin a new day.  Most of us have a routine we do most days like take a shower and have a cup of coffee or tea.  Some of us like to eat breakfast.  Sometimes Sunday is the special day where a larger breakfast complete with sausages or bacon, a personal weakness, and eggs are involved.  I know I'm really feisty if I'm into French Toast.  Yum - so good!

Ritual is different than routine in that it helps you center for the day, at least that's how I see it.  So what do you do to center yourself each day?  For me, a steaming cup of chai or coffee or tea is my heaven.  I sit quietly and contemplate the things I have to do.  If I'm lucky, my husband will have time to share his coffee sitting time with me and we both share our thoughts for the day.

Another ritual I enjoy is we have a window in our bathroom so when I'm showering, I can look out onto my garden or up into the trees.  So lovely.

Whatever you do in the morning, I encourage you to take a moment - even if you don't think you have one - to appreciate the things you have today.  Have a great day!!!

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin

A Fire Can Light You Up - and Cool You Down

When you were a kid, did you go camping?  I did.  Not only was I a girl scout for 9 years, my grandfather built a cottage in the north woods of Wisconsin where my family spent our summers.  My folks were teachers so we had the summers to leave the bustling suburb of Chicago to migrate north.

I really learned to love fires while camping.  As a Girl Scout, we would go to White Pines Dude Ranch.  At night we would recount stories around the fire: the ghost of Sarah, (warble the next bit:) the girl who was killed by a horse-drawn carriage on the bridge.  If you spoke her name, you would see her - and something bad might happen to YOU!  Mwuh-huh-hah!

The crackle of the wood, the heat on my face, and the tending of the flame all bring back visceral memories of laughter, love, and a time when I had few responsibilities.  Being an adult is not all it's cracked up to be.  There are days I long for someone else to pay my bills, clean my house, feed me, and do my laundry. 

History can be remembered in kindling a fire: that kindles peace and soothes my soul. 

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin

Mary Oliver is an Inspiration to Me

Mary Oliver has a gift with words. This Pulitzer Prize winner and her dog are captured in a quiet moment to the right.

Following is a great poem of Ms. Oliver's:

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

~Mary Oliver

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin