Someone thinks we have sweet oranges too!
I went out on the deck to take a picture of the deep dark blue ocean this morning. As I passed our navel orange tree, I looked down and spotted this orange! Guess the birds think we have sweet oranges too! I realized how warm it was so I went in, got a cup of coffee and went back to sit on the deck. I sat there, at times, closing my eyes to engage the other senses.
The Santa Ana winds were blowing. Santa Anas don’t blow non-stop. They blow in gusts of various strengths. They can be cold winds or warm to hot winds. These were the warm winds. I sat very still paying attention. Soon I noticed the winds had stopped.
Then the wind began again and grew stronger. At times, the wind whispered lightly through the leaves and other times, the winds were so strong that the leaves began to shout, drowning out other sounds, becoming wind dancers. I felt the warmth of the sun on my cheek. Then I heard the wind say to my hair, “I can’t reach her cheek but you can. Brush it softly giving her a kiss.”
At times, I saw the wind in the avocado trees before I heard it, as the crescendo built rising to meet the strength of the wind. I pushed myhair behind my ear and felt the sun began to heat up my ear with its’ hot rays. But the wind said, “No, that won’t do.” My hair began to move back to cover the ear as the wind picked it up and rearranged it to its’ choosing.
I sat there feeling the wind, warmed by the sun, listening to the leaves. When the wind stopped, I heard tennis balls bouncing at the nearby courts and motorcycles roaring down Main Street. But the wind would take over the sounds again, rustling the leaves to a crescendo as I drank my warm coffee and savored a Southern California February morning.
Do you ever feel called to do something? Do you take the time to sense everything that is happening? Do you ever do things being mindful? Share with me what you do! I’d love to hear it.
Although I can’t complain about our NYC winter this year, I did wish I was in Southern California as I read your post, Julieanne. It’s so easy to take everything around us for granted and not be mindful. Thanks for this reminder.
You’re welcome, @twitter-138423299:disqus . Yet New York has much to offer as well. Everywhere there is beauty and serenity if we just take the time to see it!
I loved reading this post! I was able to enter into the experience with you. I call these re-booting experiences because they seem to help me rest my nervous system verve. My favorite place is my backyard which has a magnificent view of the Santa Monica mountains. I also have a lovely pond brimming with life–goldfish, frogs,and koi. It’ a place where I can just BE!
It sounds divine, @54c45ca7dc4f1a71827809eb877485bd:disqus aureena. We converted our back yard to a veggie and fruit garden and it was covered in weeds. I’m hoping to create a little place down between the lemon and the orange trees. However I love sitting on the deck and just watching the ocean, the birds and the trees.
Your post is so vivid and descriptive, I felt like I was there with you, watching your experience and being present in your moment. My favorite place to close my eyes and be a part of the moment is when I am at the temple, listening to the hymns being sung, I attempt to be in tune with myself and my body.
Yes, a temple is a lovely place where quiet and solitude is there in abundance. The ocean with the sound of the waves is one of my favorite spots!
An interesting observation! Adyashanti says it’s okay for thoughts to appear in a meditation as long as we don’t attach to the thought. Observe it, thank it and let it go.
Julianne, your post made stop and realize that i seldom do that seldom take the time to savor the moment like you so beautifully describe. I always seem to be so busy that I miss those opportunities. Thanks for reminding me what I am missing. I will try t be more in the moment especially when I am out in nature.
I so understand that! Sometimes I found myself saying “You can’t sit out here. YOu have too much to do.” But I sit anyway. Those moments are etched in my memory. The work that has to get done, is soon forgotten even after doing it. It leaves no mark!
Wow, Julieanne – I have never been this mindful or this still. The picture you have painted in your post is amazing. Honestly, your words called me to be still and nearly feel myself sitting there beside you. I love being near water and find it so soothing. Thank you for such a wonderful and beautiful reminder of what we can experience when we slow down.
Jennifer Peek | Small Business StrategistFind Your New GrooveThe Freedom to Build Your Business Your Way
Thank you. I am so amazed at the reactions to my post. I wrote it recalling what I did and just felt myself doing it all over again. Yet others are picking it up as well. Thank you for your comments. I felt them to my core. How cool that we can touch each other with words like this but I suspect there is a lot of energy travelling both ways as well.
I think there is nothing more joyful than moving into this kind of time out of time, where you can hear the world singing around you. I get to do this every morning at dawn as I practice qigong in my peaceful back yard. Loved hearing your moment-to-moment
That sounds wonderful for you Vicki! I need to do it more often.
This is a beautiful meditation. You are coexisting with the wind and co-creating! Mindfulness is a topic I am called to often. It is both my weakness and my yearning. Being still is amazingly healing. I need to have a conversation with the part of me that avoids it! I can picture your beautiful environment and the sweet pleasures of being so reflective within it.
Judy Stone-Goldman
The Reflective Writer
http://www.thereflectivewriter.com
Personal-Professional Balance Through Writing
Your reply created more peace. I too am called and I avoid it many times. I would love to be mindful in each moment. It’s possible so what stops us?
Definitely felt what you were feeling! I can sometimes close my eyes and go where I want to go and then I’m always so surprised when I open them and I’m back where I was. I think that is probably the same kind of mindfulness you experienced. It was not like a meditative state because you seemed to be experiencing everything with enhanced senses (which I guess could be a meditative state!)
Candace Davenport
http://www.ourlittlebooks.com ~ Little Books with a Big Message
I was taught this in an art class. It’s actually called being mindful of everything. I wrote a blog about it earlier. Check it out. There is an exercise for you to do and afterwards you can write a haiku poem about your experience if you feel called. Here’s the link to it.
http://www.julieannecase.com/mindful-meditation Tell me what you think afterwards. I’d love to hear about your experience.
Beautiful meditation Julieanne. I do a lot of this kind of connecting with my surroundings also. Every morning I spend some time with coffee and a journal and allow my mind to flow. I give myself time to be steeped in the sweet warmth of the steamy coffee, the feel of the paper and the sound of the pen on the paper. Sometimes the shower is a meditation feeling the water run down my body. When too much wants to be in my head and I cannot escape I go to nature- like last week in the Alabama Hills. Wind blowing crisp and cool off of the snow covered Sierras, hawks calling, and sun drenched stone helped me to release all that unimportant gibberish that was going on in my head. Thanks for sharing your process and your vivid expression!
Thanks, @cherylmcdonaldc:disqus ! We all need to do it. I have done that in the shower too. Why am I so reluctant to drive down to the ocean is beyond me. There I can really escape! It’s calling very strongly. Today we had some light rain and it was so so welcome!
The ocean is my healing place. It is the place I go to reboot, recharge,
Refuel,, rethink, redo, regroup and breathe.
This was a beautiful piece… I also felt like I was right there with you.
Thanks, Debbie. I, too, feel the ocean is a healing place. I remember when I lived within walking as opposed to driving distance to the ocean when I was most upset, I’d walk to the shoreline, sit and just gaze at the water, watching it go in and out. Soon I realized I was just a little grain of sand in this wide universe and the ocean could take any troubles and wash it out at sea. It would calm me and give me a perspective I so needed then. I guess I could use my imagination to do the same thing.
I’m often called by the outdoors. I go out specifically to smell the fresh air and trees. Being mindful can happen to me at any time. As I type this comment, I feel the subtle texture of the keys, their temperature and density.
I love that, Rowena! Now you have me noticing the feel of the keys, the pressure as the keys are hit and the smoothness of them under my fingertips. We can do it with anything and everything. Even with washing the dishes, and feeling the soap on the various glass, china or pans, the temp of the water, the sleekness of the feel!
Sounds lovely and it’s one of the things I really want to add to my ritual – a time to just be. I love your descriptiveness. And I must say, your photo of the orange is absolutely beautiful.
Susan Berland
http://susan-berland.com
Even with the big bite taken out of the orange? LOL! We don’t know what birds are eating them. The oranges are on the top of the tree. Thanks for the compliments. I just wanted to write what I was experiencing and feeling. Looks like I succeeded.
Can’t say I’ve ever sat and enjoyed the Santa Anas, as I’m usually hiding inside since they are STRONG where I am since there’s nothing to slow them down. Does it count that I enjoyed watching my mom try to get out of my car in the winds and she couldn’t open the door against them? I tend to be the type that likes to sit and watch the rain or snow… but only while on vacation or at times I don’t have to be out in it. But I also live amongst dairies, so you don’t want to be out in the winds with all of the dirt and smells. It’s very different up in your neck of the woods. I don’t get up there nearly enough. My time to just sit and enjoy is to watch my child dancing or singing, sleeping, playing, times when I just sit in awe of how amazing she is.
The Santa Anas weren’t blowing as hard as they can. So I could sit out there without fear of my ceramic coffee cup taking flight! LOL. But it got gusty but tolerable. Are you located in the inland empire region of So. Calif? We do have gorgeous weather in the winter and then everyone wonders when we ever see the sun in the summer! I still love it here though!
Love, Love, Lovely!! I am often called outside to marvel at our great planet. I only wish I was still coast-side… oh well, I can’t complain! I often walk the pups by the river, which is very peaceful & serene (unless there are crazy bike enthusiasts on the trail!). I love how you stayed with the wind and let it have it’s way with you.
Wonderful meditative post, Julieanne!
Heidi & Atticus
http://www.atticusuncensored.com
“commentary to give you paws…”
Thanks, Heidi! That morning will stay with me because I was so present. The wind today is ferocious and would not be conducive to sitting with! And they are not even Santa Anas! A river with the sound of the water sounds wonderful as well along with the chorus of barking dogs! Pretty idyllic I’d say!
Nicely written, Julieanne. It makes me feel that I’ve been taking for granted the wonderful parks and beaches that are near me. I get caught up with work and forget to come up for air. I feel a road trip coming on.
I too take things for granted at times. I am working on doing more mindful things. I’ve even started weeding and noticing the dirt as it falls off the roots, the feel of the dirt itself and the smell. Glad you enjoyed my post.
Julieanne, I love when I come to a blog and actually find myself relaxing while I’m reading. You make me long to be somewhere warm where I can feel and hear the ocean breezes.
Thank you, @keepupweb:disqus . I’m so glad you enjoyed the post. It’s wonderful to hear that others got so much from my mindful morning. I relived it as I wrote it and I guess the feelings came through. Thank you for your comments!