Mombie – a bit of everything

Ducks!

My sister and I went swimming this morning, in the rain, at a local pond.

Some ducklings had the same plan.

Small ducks swimming in a pond with another duck walking towards the water.
Image description: a photo of some ducks swimming and walking up to get in the water at the shoreline of a pond with a pebbly beach on the right, the water on the left, some trees and greenery at the top of the photo.

Practicing TKD

My TKD classes take a a summer break and I love taking time away from that weekly routine.

I generally don’t need a break from TKD per se, I need a break from having to get to class twice a week at a specific time.

This year though, I also needed the physical break, the time away from the movements.

After the stress and pain around my Dad’s passing in May and the stress of scrambling to catch up on things in June, I needed to just let my body do what it wanted to do at whatever pace it wanted to do it for a while.

Today, though, it was time to get back to those movements and it felt really good.

I just did the first four patterns, relatively easy stuff that my brain and my muscles are very familiar with.

And it was fantastic.

I loved the almost meditative quality of those familiar movements, the ease of just letting my body do something it knows how to do.

And I felt very satisfied with the whole process when I was finished.

Self care for the win.

Shadow Creatures

Image description: A photo of mine and Khalee’s shadow cast by the setting sun onto the evergreen trees on the other side of the path below the sidewalk where she and I are standing. The grass on the slope down to the path is in the foreground, the asphalt path runs diagonally down towards the right hand side of the photo and there are trees and grass on the other side partially lit by the sun. Gaps in the lower branches of the trees create interesting shapes that look a bit like other creatures behind Khalee.

1) I wish I had the photography skills to have made a really artsy shot here.

2) I didn’t notice at the time that the gaps in the trees looked like short invisible creatures were standing behind Khalee and casting a shadow but I like the effect.

Making the most of warm weather?

OK, to be clear, I am not complaining about the heat.

It’s warmer then I prefer it to be, but it beats the hell out of being too cold for this time of year.

However, the heat leaves me stuck with another overthinking dilemma.

Because we have so little good weather, I want to make the most of warm days by being outside, doing fun things.

But we actually have a heat warning here today.

And I have work to do.

So what counts as making the most of a beautiful day when there’s a heat warning?

I shouldn’t really spend too much time outside in the heat, it’s not good for me. It’s possible it’s even unsafe.

But it feels weird to plan to spend the whole day inside where it will be cooler when we have so few warm days.

Basically, I end up spending the whole day thinking: When should I go outside? Is it too warm? Has it cooled down enough by now?

Aside from my own tendency to overthink, and I can hear generations of mothers and grandmothers and Girl Guide leaders telling me to get outside and spend some time out in the sun. Saying that I shouldn’t waste a beautiful day by staying inside.

Now, obviously, I’m not going to spend too much time outside and put myself at any risk. but it would be a lot easier on my brain if I could calm down the overthinking about needing to make the most of a sunny day.

Snail Friend

Image description: a close-up photo yellow-gold snail shell (with a snail inside) affixed to a green maple leaf. There are other leaves and maple keys right behind the first leaf and in the out-of-focus background is a white plastic chair against my red shed.

Do I know that snails can be pests? Yes.

Do I love them anyway? Yes.

Last night while I was meditating in my backyard swing, I accidentally opened my eyes at one point and spotted this snail on a leaf across the yard.

I thought ‘I hope he doesn’t move before I finish meditating and get over there to take a picture.

Then I realized time was on my side because a snail travels at snail speed so I went back to focusing on my breath.