Chores and a Hike

Yesterday when I woke, I knew that I would have to keep myself on task. I had a lot of chores to do: Cleaning, rearranging, laundry, and schoolwork. I purposefully kept the computer off because it’s easy for me to get side tracked. I began moving things from behind the closet door, so that I could get to my shelf that has writing and poetry books. I was putting books back, but as I sat there with knees folded under, I decided to pick a handful of poetry books one at a time and read a few poems from each out loud. I noticed that depending on which poem I was reading, I would change how I read it but it just happened. In those moments, any aches and pains that my body felt upon awakening, disappeared. I felt pure joy at such a simple activity in the midst of my cleaning day.

I promised myself that if I got my chores done, I would take a hike. I saw that it was already a lovely day: Blue skies and wispy clouds. I felt good about what I got done because neglecting my responsibilities was starting to make me feel bad. I’ve never enjoyed cleaning much, and I’ll do it, but sometimes I let the task go for too long. I leave things out of their place for too long, allow the dishes to pile too high. And so, I hope to get into a better rhythm and start doing a better job. The good news is I did my tasks mindfully and was able to find the joy in it after all. I stopped to move my body to the music in the background occasionally, and I also had no music for part of the earlier morning, so that I was completely with myself in the quiet, and I could better hear the many different birds singing to the new day. They always start my day off in the best of directions.

The hike was the perfect end to the day.

The mountain in the background is Mt. Diablo