It’s 5:54 am, EDT on the longest day of the year and I am awake.
Frankly, this has far more to do with things rolling around in my head than it does with an ambition to see the sun rise on the Solstice, in case you were wondering.
I am, nonetheless, here, watching and listening.
We began with what passes for full dark in an urban neighborhood with street lights.
The very first bird chimed in, excited to sing up the sun. A tweet and then about four trilling sort of notes. Again. And again.
It’s almost a week until the official US day of Thanksgiving. I’ve started early! When I was a kid, we drove, hours and hours and hours, to Grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving. I’ve actually caught myself humming along with our tune for today. Also because I’ve been thinking again about the notion that anxiety lives either in the past or the future, while, in the present moment we are, by many perspectives, all right. I’m trying to stay present in this moment. (Not turning on the news helps!)
A day of apple fasting is part of the tradition at the Qigong healing retreats I’ve attended for the last two years. I’m feeling grateful for those experiences today.
The purpose of apple fasting is two-fold. One is to give one’s body a rest. One apple, three times a day. Lots of water. Maybe a spot of tea. The second is more about noticing. What is it like to feel what you feel? To set aside anxiety, which is always about the past or the future, and be in the moment? With the scent of an apple. The crunch. The clean, not quite sweet taste. To eat, for just one day, what is offered?
