Months ago, Lowi brought into our stratosphere the question, “What is saving your life right now?”

Of course, we can’t take credit, as Lowi heard it from Jen Hatmaker who borrowed it from author Barbara Brown Taylor. While sitting at my computer last night, far later than I like to be pondering a blog, the question came back to me. It is one of those questions that moves like a bubble in a lava lamp. It doesn’t bounce around feverishly in my consciousness, it simply and gently rises up into my mind and often falls back into the background as seamlessly. I imagine the question drifted to my mind because I was mentally tired. The week has been long, the days have at times been tedious and everything in me nudges,  I am in need of respite. 

It is no wonder then that I would ask, “what is saving my life right now?”

Lately, it has been early morning walks while the sun is rising and before my brain has a chance to pick up a head of steam. It’s cooler now in the mornings and the briskness of the air soothes. Meditation is also saving me in a sense. For the first time in a long while I have a streak of consecutive days going and that keeps me focused. It helps me to keep the promise, the commitment to myself that even if it’s just 8-10 minutes I will show up.

What is saving my life right now is simplicity. Like most of you, there are areas of my life that feel complex and intricate, and yet where I am able I have an intention to keep it simple. 

The only question that has consistently helped provide clarity, aside from “what is saving my life right now” is “how can this be easier?”

This can mean more phone calls and less Zoom. That feels easier. It can mean setting aside grandiose expectations and instead, letting a moment or situation be what it is, stop fighting, stop efforting to control. That feels easier.

It can mean eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of going to the grocery store because it feels easier. What’s saving my life right now is to look for ease as often as I can remember. This can be easier by surrendering the commitment that a situation or life needs to always be hard. 

Collectively what provides salvation and ease is the wisdom of Pema Chodron:

“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.”

Pema Chodron

Sunshine & Sarcasm,
Lowi & G