Friday 5

5 things I want to do this summer, in no particular order.

1) hula hoop in the back yard

2) go on a day hike with my friend Jan and stop for a reading break

3) swim in a pond

4) have tea with Mom on her patio

5) have a long chat around the firepit with my friends

Yesterday, I was outside

Last fall, we forgot to take off the caps on the posts on our patio and over the course of the winter, they fell off.

Yesterday was such a nice day that I wanted to get outside for a few minutes so I chose to go find the scattered post caps. (I found 6 of 8 so that was a victory. I think the other two are in a small snowbank on one side of the patio.)

While I was outside in the sunshine, I realized that I had enough time to sit in my swing for a few minutes.

So I did.

And I was astounded by how quickly my body relaxed.

I actually didn’t sit, instead I lay down across the saucer swing and just let it swing gently back and forth.

I swear, I felt the tension in my muscles melt.

Just thinking about it today is having the same effect.

I don’t know why that swing is so relaxing but damn it, I’ll take it!

Soon, soon, soon

Last night, when I let Khalee out at around midnight, it was cool and crisp outside but it wasn’t cold.

It made me hopeful that I’ll soon be able to sit out on the patio at night and draw.

And that soon I’ll be doing yoga outside instead of in.

And soon I’ll have pots of flowers everywhere.

Soon.

Soon.

Soon.

A photo of a patio chair in the corner of a patio at night
Image description: A nighttime photo of a patio chair in a corner on my wooden patio. There are white lights strung on the railing behind the chair. There is still snow on the ground and it can be seen through the metal rungs of the railing. A leafless tree is in the background.

A longer walk

Yesterday, after a meeting, I decided to walk home.

Most of the year, this walk would be pretty straightforward but with snow still in patches on the paths , it was a bit uncertain.

I still enjoyed it though.

I really like walking for transportation but my ADHD used to get in the way quite often and I would find that I didn’t have quite enough time to get myself to my planned destination and I’d need to take the car.

It was easier if I got dropped off because there was less timing pressure for getting home.

Now though, after years of meditation and conscious work on how to make my own ADHD life flow more smoothly, I can usually plan enough time to walk in either direction or I can decide on the best plan in advance.

All of this is to say that I had an enjoyable walk home yesterday and I felt grateful for a bit of time to move and think and listen to a podcast.

Also, I saw a cool tree.

A grey tree trunk with some parts of the roots above ground
I don’t know exactly what I find so cool but I really like this tree. Image description: the grey trunk of a (currently) leafless medium-sized tree with parts of some of the larger roots visible above ground. The trunk splits into two large parts (branches?) about 3ft from the ground and there is a whole in the branch (?) on the right side that looks like a monster eye. It’s surrounded by dead grass and leaves and there is a big patch of snow and other trees in the background nearby.

Art Pause

I made this last night and I’m really happy with it.

A smal collage including a photo of a child, a pot of flowers, and the word pause against a purple/blue background.

image description: a small collage on a rectangular piece of paper. The collage includes a black and white photo of a small child with their head leaning back while the wind blows their hair back. They appear to be breathing in the scent of the pot of pink flowers in the next image. At the bottom of the collage is the word pause with each letter written separately on individual small purple squares of paper. The blue/purple background behind the other images has black lines lightly drawn on it.