From my window

The yellow room lights up with sunlight and makes patterns on the white curtains. I bask in it and drink spicy chai while reacquainting myself with the world. Me and my laptop, the sun, a hot cup of chai, and lots of warm blankets greet this Sunday morning with openness. 

As I look up from my email and my facebook wanderings I catch glimpses of runners trotting pass; I can hear their exhales and feel the earth shake a little bit as they pass. I always think it's interesting that even though I'm inside I can still distinctly hear the world outside. Many a night and morning I will just listen to it. 

Secretly I am spying through these windows of mine. Observing the path that so many take that crosses right in front of my eyes in earshot. The green shrubs and the big evergreen have grown very tall so that my peeping view is smaller than in the past. Now I only see the color of the car and the top of a runner's head. 

Little girls are singing the Alleluia on their way home from church. Their voices stream in with joy. It didn't matter that I couldn't see them, I could tell they were happy. Happy to be singing on this beautiful day. 

When I listen closely to the cars I can feel the energy of their pace. Sometimes I feel a tension rise up as they zoom by. Everyone so in a hurry to get somewhere. To be somewhere. To not be fast enough to get there. Hurry Hurry Hurry. The noise of hurry is not one that entices me. And it's a noise that I do not like to portray, although it's difficult when you're surrounded by it. Hurrying is not really that effective. That's all I got to say. 

It disturbs the nervous system flooding your brain with thoughts of "come on, go faster, I need to be there in 5 minutes, honking horns." Just by writing those thoughts I immediately feel a string of tension thread through my spine.

Things can wait. Knowing that it's your responsibility to take care of yourself and how and when you arrive somewhere makes hurrying even more personally damaging. Face it, if you're late, you're late. Apologize and face up to your responsibility, but it won't help to rush. Rushing just exacerbates the problem and turns you into a tizzy.

"Non-hurrying" practice is one that has instilled a lot more patience in me and with life. Waiting in lines becomes more enjoyable, because you stop the thought pattern of "Oh my goodness this line is moving so slow...they should really have some more people working here." Instead, (this happened to me in an airport security line) see what and who is around you, observe and maybe start a conversation. Really you're all in the same boat and you've all been given a chance to learn something from someone that you may never have met. 30 minutes flies by in a heartbeat and you aren't so gosh darn annoyed. Annoyance is just a waste of energy, more so than waiting in line. :-)

A couple walks by their faces highlighted by the sun. They are enjoying their path. My roommates' DVD plays loudly from her room. She coughs consistently. Sickness persists even when you don't want it to. A sign of weakness in the body, a sign of vulnerability, a sign of unbalance. 

The day has begun the world outside is calmly laying down it's journey for the day. I snuggle deeper under the blankets and enjoy the solitude and stillness. Paying attention to the fatigue of my body--very sore abs and hips from yesterday's asana practice--I let things slow down.