Day 31 Mindful Moments Challenge

Gratitude for dancing flames and a warm fire.

Day 30 Mindful Moments Challenge

Tree sculpture...noticing the structure of the trees, like clothes hangers for leaves.

Day 29 Mindful Moments Challenge

Peaceful pretzel...noticing the peace sign in every bite.

Day 28 Mindful Moments Challenge

A cup of tea, sipped and savored, slowly <3 br="">

Day 27 Mindful Moments Challenge

A beautiful sunset today, pinks, purples and oranges glowing in the winter sky.

Day 26 Mindful Moments Challenge

Soup simmering on the stove, comfort food that soothes the body, mind and spirit on a chilly Sunday.

Day 25 Mindful Moments Challenge

Tuning in to peeling carrots...watching curling ribbons of orange appear as I move the vegetable peeler along the length of each carrot. One after another, the ribbons of orange grow into a little carrot mountain.

Day 24 Mindful Moments Challenge

Once hidden by leaves and now exposed to the elements, once home to a family. Loved to look up and see this reminder of warmer days.

Day 23 Mindful Moments Challenge

Feeling amazed and grateful at the ability to connect with others around the globe today. Trying to figure out what time 10:00 PM GMT+1 is here in New England, so those of us on three continents will be able to see and chat with each other in real time. Can we be mindful when we use technology? We often see technology as a disconnect from the real and present world, yet it can also foster connection in a way simply unimagined a few short years ago.  BTW, 10:00 PM GMT+1 is 4:00 PM EST :-)

DAY 22 Mindful Moments Challenge

Noticing what 8 degree air feels like when I breathe in ...a physical jolt. Grateful to escape to a warm building.

Day 21 Mindful Moments Challenge

Eating a pineapple -- smelling like tropical sunshine, summer during a northern winter freeze.  Prinkly outer skin and sharp leaves hide the sweet and juicy flesh inside, an ingenious disguise for us pineapple predators. Whoever first thought to open up this strange looking vegetation must have been amazed, as I am today.

Day 20 Mindful Moments Challenge

Paperwhite narcissus, an intoxicating scent. An interesting intersection of the reality of winter and the promise of spring.

 

Day 19 Mindful Moments Challenge

Girls Scout Cookie time...requisite box of Thin Mints. Trying very hard to savor one at a time.

Day 18 Mindful Moments Challenge

Huge, puffy snowflakes fell from the sky today -- so big that they looked like cotton balls. Unexpected and magical.

Day 17 Mindful Moments Challenge

Sushi...one of my favorite foods. Tonight I watched the sushi chef prepare sushi with such artistry and care, like an orchestrated dance. The colors and textures created a beautiful tapestry, each piece a work of art.

Day 16 Mindful Moments Challenge

Black ice...a metaphor for life? Stop paying attention and you lose traction.

Day 15 Mindful Moments Challenge

Looking outside this morning the lawn sparkled like glitter, a fleeting moment that disappeared as the sun warmed the grass. Grateful that I didn't miss it.

Day 14 Mindful Moments Challenge

Popcorn...like snowflakes, each kernel a different shape and texture. Quite a difference when I notice the individual pieces rather than the full bowl...slowly eating popcorn is a practice in patience. What did you notice today?

Day 13 Mindful Moments Challenge

Balmy Boston -- quite an ironic statement for January in the northeast. Today as the mercury inched to 50 degrees I observed the relative nature of temperature. This afternoon sun shone and the snow seemed to melt before my eyes, I opened my car windows and remarked how warm the air felt. Yet, in August if the temperature was 50 degrees, I would bundle up in a sweatshirt and bemoan the fact that we were having such cold weather....a humorous mindful moment that I hope I won't forget come summertime...it's all relative!

Day 12 Mindful Moments Challenge

Newspapers piled on the table, another pot of coffee brewing...Sunday spread out before me. Mindfully savoring non-doing.

Day 11 Mindful Moments Challenge

Weird weather today...fog and mist on snowy landscape, thunder and lightning in the afternoon...how can I not be mindful of this? 

Day 10 Mindful Moments Challenge

Savoring the unexpected gift of simply breathing together during meditation group...a full room and open hearts create an extraordinary combination...gratitude for my students and all they teach me.

Day 9 Mindful Moments Challenge

Even when you think you think you "know" an object, there is always a new observation to be made, an opportunity for a mindful moment, and so it was for me with a clementine today.
Things I learned that I didn't know before:

• You can't smell a citrus smell when the peel in intact, only upon scratching or opening the skin
• Each segment is not the same size
• There were 11 segments in my clementine, but 9 in one I ate yesterday
• I found a seed in one of the segments but none in the other segments

What did you notice today?

Day 8 Mindful Moments Challenge

Slow traffic near Harvard Square in Cambridge Massachusetts today gave me the opportunity to notice the trees by the side of the road from my car window. Observing the bark of the old sycamores reminded me of the apt name my kids used to call these trees -- "cartoon trees" because they looked like the kind of trees a child would draw as a cartoon. This mindful moment gave me a pause and a smile in an otherwise busy day.

Day 7 Mindful Moments Challenge

During this time of frigid cold weather in the north, I am very mindful of icicles -- their beauty and their precarious nature. Are they a suspended moment -- liquid paused in time?

Day 6 Mindful Moments Challenge

A mindful cup of tea on a foggy, rainy day, watching the snow melt before my eyes.

Day 5 Mindful Moments Challenge

Bright sun, blue shadows, white snow piled high...very grateful to be comfortably warm and looking out at the winter tableau.

Day 4 Mindful Moments Challenge

Looking up at the sky as I mindlessly loaded grocery bags into my car trunk, I was struck by the beautiful symmetry of a jet's contrail perfectly bisecting the bright blue winter sky...an unexpected mindful moment in a parking lot. What was your mindful moment today?

Day 3 Mindful Moments Challenge

Today's mindful moment...The juxtaposition of a tropical hibiscus bloom in my warm house while looking outdoors to see a landscape covered with snow today helps me understand why conservatories were so popular in Victorian times.

Mindful

Thank you to one of my readers, Dee, for "re-Minding" me of this lovely poem by Mary Oliver. So perfect for our month of Mindful Moments

Mindful

by Mary Oliver

Everyday
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for —
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world —
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant —
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these —
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

"Mindful" by Mary Oliver from Why I Wake Early. © Beacon Press, 2005. Reprinted with permission.

Day 2 Mindful Moments Challenge

As the snow began to fall this morning, I walked along a familiar path to the gym. I noticed a bird's nest carefully interwoven with bits of green and blue plastic. A brightly decorated holiday home that I hadn't noticed before. A gift for today.

Happy New Year...Welcome to a Month of Mindful Moments

Good morning 2014! As we enter a new year we are filled with resolutions for big changes in our lives, and generally these changes are unsustainable over time. Let's do something a little different this year, what about setting the bar lower and just noticing one thing mindfully each day? I am calling this the Mindful Moments Challenge. I invite you to participate during the month of January as I post a daily mindful moment from my life and hope you do the same. Expect to see 31 daily posts this month, with a thought, a photo, a description, or a poem about something that I noticed in a way I hadn't before. I welcome and encourage you to post your mindful musings -- feel free to use the comment section on my blog for your thoughts. Let's see how this evolves and see what mindful moments we can share.

Ready, set, go........

January 1 The friendly face of a paperwhite narcisus