27/365- Fairmont Princess, Scottsdale

Digital Art by Tracey Grumbach, artist

"Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it was different..." -James Baraz

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  While I am here on vacation in Scottsdale, Arizona, I have been focusing on being present in the moment, trying to rest my weary body and mind. I've been fighting off what I am assuming is a virus the kids brought home from the first weeks of school. While sitting outside under the cloudless azure sky, I close my eyes and concentrate on my senses. I hear the giggling of children playing in the pool. I hear the high, almost metallic, call of the rosy-faced lovebirds perched in the palms above my head. Their song mixes with the beat of the music streaming through the speakers at the bar. I smell the acidic chlorine from the pool barely overpowered by the wafting smells of grilled meats and fried potatoes from the pool grill.  I feel the hot, dry sun on my skin making it tingle as if it is close to burning.  I feel the air moving, almost undetectable, against the hairs on my arms and head, cool in nature with a lack of humidity. I breathe deep, feeling my belly expand as my chest fills with the air. I exhale slowly through my nose, imagining all the bad viruses and bacteria living in my body leaving my system and restoring my health.

I open my eyes to release the bright orange under my closed lids and I find myself squinting from the powerful brightness. I sheild my eyes and look above me at the stucco architecture, the ceramic barell tiles and I am drawn to the neutral colors of the style in a viceral way. It's like the buildings have sprung from the earth itself, a part of the natural landscape created from the same particles God used to create me, dirt, ashes, minerals. I think about how grateful I am to have this time to be still, to recover, to focus on myself and rest. I say a prayer of thanksgiving to the others who made this trip possible for me...my husband, my goddaughter, my son. Because of their love for me I can have this week to focus on myself. I am so thankful.

xo

Bird 1- Digital Art by Tracey Grumbach

Bird 1- Digital Art- Mobile Art-Tracey Grumbach

The other morning I went out to my garden to pick green beans for our dinner that night. This gardening thing is fairly new to me and I am finding it to be very zen like. As I was searching the green bean bushes for ripe beans, all the rest of the world seemed to melt away. I only heard the sound of the birds squawking at my bird feeder and the bees buzzing on the clover near me. I only felt the fuzzy leaves and pods of the bean plant. As I picked each bean, placing it in a basket I brought with me from the kitchen, there was such a sense of thankfulness for the food God was providing right through my little garden. Each bean brought with it such a sense of thankfulness that I became very emotional and overwhelmed with just how blessed and provided for I am. What a blessing to say you ate food from a plant that you yourself watch grow from seeds that your own hands planted in the soil. I was moved that something as simple as picking beans could bring me such emotion.

Since the New Year, one of my goals was to practice being more mindful; being present in each moment of my day. This was one of those times where I felt very successful at concentrating on exactly what I was doing and letting my senses and thoughts surround only the task at hand. I felt so connected to myself and the earth and God in that moment. It was a good reminder to practice mindfulness even more each day.

I hope you enjoy Bird 1- a series of bird images I plan on creating over the next 6 months or so. If you've known me for a long time, you know I have a serious love of birds that I developed as a child from my father. I've decided to do a collection of bird images from old bird pictures I've taken through the years. Keep an eye out for them as we move through the second half of the year.

Blessings to each of you on this Thursday.

Also, I wanted to remind everyone that I will be working at Arts By the Bay Gallery tomorrow from 11:00AM-3:00PM! Stop in and see me and the five pieces of art I have hanging this show! Hope to see you there! You can keep track of my upcoming shifts and other events on my Upcoming Events tab.

xo

Mind Full Ness

Mind Full Ness

As I am typing I am sitting on the top deck of our vacation rental listening to the sound of crashing waves directly in front of me. The view is breathtaking and the salty air on my skin and lips is dewy and feels fresh instead of heavy. There aren't many gulls around so the sound of birds is minimal but the laughter and screeching of children is plentiful. The smell of the ocean, you know that distinct smell, don't you; mixes occasionally with a whiff of pungent bait fish blowing over in the breeze from the fishing pier just beyond the deck to my far left. The fishermen/women are not catching much this morning. The fish seem to be winning.

The tide is high, the sandpipers are running from the advancing waterline as each wave moves onto shore, searching the air holes created by the ghost crabs for their next meal. Sandcastles that were built at an earlier time are now slowly being eaten by the hungry waves. Surfers wait just beyond the breaking point waiting for the perfect wave to carry them to shore. A few are solo, but many swarm in groups, just watching and waiting. The athletic types are jogging with their dogs, earphones plugged into their ears, rhythmically making their way down the shoreline. I often wonder where they go...some I see on his/her return trip back to where he/she started, but others I never see again...where do they go?

I look inward to my own body...I feel relaxed, heart rhythm steady and slow, but I fell a tightness in my chest. I noticed an increase in Lyme/Bartonella related air hunger this morning when I woke and climbed the stairs to the top level of the home. Perhaps the humid air makes it more difficult for air exchange. Either way, the result is a restriction in my lungs that is noticeable. The light from the hot sun is making me squint at the computer screen as my fingers fly across the keyboard. Sunglasses are in order, but then the polarization blacks out the screen and I can't see what I am typing. I'll get up and get them when I'm finished. Besides my lungs, everything else including my muscles feel soft and relaxed, no sign of tension hiding in my shoulders or neck. It's so nice to be relaxed and not worrying about all the things that need to be accomplished in the next few weeks.

Dang.  Now that I typed that, all I can think about is the list looming large for me when I get home. It is all good things, but not what I want to think about while on vacation. I've acknowledged the tightness in my stomach caused by that thought and have released it. Plenty of time later to worry about all of that. For now, back to my mindfulness of the being here and present in this moment. I'm signing off for now, going to take a few minutes while my children are occupied, to close my eyes and pay attention to my breathing, the rhythm of my own body. Meditation. Mindfulness. Thankfulness. Thank you, God, for this beautiful day. May all of you have beauty in your day. Seek it and you will find it.

xo