Sitting Days Ten and Eleven

Simply sitting on the weekends presents the challenge of keeping with the activities of my family and staying true to my daily practice. On Saturday, DH was sick, leaving the girls and I to our own defenses. We biked to the home improvement store for a couple of quarts of paint to continue our treehouse project. We chose paint colors with epic names such as Swan Seas and Mythic Forest to carry home and get to work. I began with symptoms likened to DH's at dinner time. He stepped in to prep dinner and tuck the girls in while I laid down to rest around 7. I cleared my mind while lying there and very intentionally remained still for hours; eventually drifting off to a fitful sleep.


On Sunday, I sat for 7 or 8 minutes after tactically starting a movie for one girl and encouraging the other to do a little tree climbing. I instantly felt a warm, sinking feeling from the crown of my head to my sitting bones. As it does, my mind wandered here and there but was quick to return to non-thinking. My body re-grouped from Saturday's illness and I felt fresh and energetic throughout the day. Sitting is wonder-full.

The Swan

Mary Oliver

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?