Here's Liza Ramlow one of the wonderful midwives I work with. She is heading to Africa to work with Doctors without Borders in two weeks. We had a huge retirement/send off party on Saturday and thinking about it, helping in skits and learning the songs has taken up all of my (and everyone else I work with) free time over the last week.
I was the Emcee which was quite an honor for me. I didn't feel too nervous, but as the night grew closer I grew more and more excited for the event to be over. I worked the overnight the night before and spent some of my free time alone practicing my speech with a flashlight for a microphone.
Once I got to the party, though, I realized it was just a big group of people that I knew well and that I didn't need a written speech. I also was thankful for the lectures I've given to the nursing students over these past few years. The students can be a pretty rowdy and chatty audience so I felt ready for the 90+ members of the crowd that night. The night flowed really well and everyone did an amazing job. We were so elated afterward we couldn't go home so we invaded someone's house and imposed upon her pajama-clad family, staying up until 1am.
The next day my family was a bit annoyed with me. I had been running around so much, they felt like they hadn't seen me at all and when I had been physically there, I had been thinking about the party, the three skits, the three songs and the food.
I still had so much energy the next day I wanted to chat, sing and process at a high pitched rate, but I made myself slow down and hang out with them, then I got this email and tried to listen to its words.
Life feels stressful when we run from one thing to another without pause. It’s unnatural and unkind to our bodies to live at this pace. Neither does it honor our need to celebrate our accomplishments, to survey our work and call it good. After you’re done folding the laundry, take 2 minutes to sit and admire your handiwork. Feel gratitude for your family, particularly your children, as you fold the tiny socks and t-shirts. When you unload the groceries, pause and say a prayer of thanks for a pantry full of food. Instead of running from errand to errand, give yourself time to stop at a coffee house and enjoy a cup of tea. Kindness during these transitions from one activity to another gives our days a gentle rhythm.
- from the First Ourselves Joyful Living newsletter
http://www.firstourselves.com/about/about-karly-randolph-pitman/?utm_source=First+Ourselves+Newsletters&utm_campaign=667f39a11d-Daily_20100319&utm_medium=email
But we didn't go grocery shopping and we had no milk, eggs or butter this morning.
But that's OK, it was fun to live list-less for a day or two.
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