I’ve just come in from a long walk through our neighborhood on this beautiful spring morning. We’ve had a lot of rain over the last few weeks, and it’s good to have the sun back for a visit.

As I walked out the front door and headed down the hill, I stopped to breathe in the sweet smell of lilacs and wild honeysuckle. I love the scent of spring and look forward to it every year. A short distance from the house, as I scanned the horizon, I realized I was feeling something I’ve spent so much of my life chasing after – contentment.

Contentment: A state of happiness and satisfaction; ease of mind.

How did I get here, I wondered? What had to happen for me to feel so good this morning?

As I continued walking, I decided to reverse-engineer my path to contentment, and here’s what I came up with:

Fewer appointments on my calendar.

More time to myself.

Doing what my soul wants rather than following the overly responsible voice in my head.

Slowing down and trusting that there’s always enough time to do what needs to be done, especially when I keep my attention in the present moment.

Allowing others to take care of their own needs.

Saying no unless it’s an absolute yes.

Contentment is a byproduct of being present and practicing good self-care. And it has magnetic powers. Within no time, I saw evidence that my positive feelings were attracting more reasons to feel good. As I crested the first hill, I came upon a gorgeous magenta peony flower with a neon-orange center. It looked like a happy face. As I continued further down the road, I found a chipmunk sitting at the side of the street, munching on a nut. When I approached, rather than scampering away, he stayed in place and looked up at me. I swear I saw a smile on his tiny, whiskered face.

In the last part of my walk, just before I got to my driveway, I rounded a corner and found a lone deer bedded down under a pine tree off in the distance. I stopped and said a silent prayer of thanks for the beauty of our shared moment.

There is much to be grateful for when you pay attention to life.

When I arrived home, I took off my sneakers and walked barefoot in the grass. I thought about how tempting it is to be complicit with the pain of the world. But that’s not the energy we want to foster. We want to elevate consciousness, and we do so by lifting our thoughts, words, and actions.

And maybe by taking a good, long walk.

Love,

Cheryl

P.S. – You can find last week’s Zoom gathering on grief and loss, here.