Love Song for Nearly Perfect Days

Nearly perfect days are few and far between, but I've been having quite a few lately.

I ran into a friend the other day and he told me that I sound great. He had that kind of weird, surprised look on his face that had me wondering if there was something about myself I hadn't been seeing lately. I got a similar reaction from some of the ladies at church last week. 

"Is there something we ought to know?" one of them asked.

I think they were asking me if there is a new man in my life. It was the sly smiles that clued me in. I'd just gotten a new haircut and, granted, it was quite a change. I was dressed in a relatively new top and jacket. I'd picked up a couple of things for spring since I'd noticed my wardrobe has been getting a little thin. I've also been eating healthfully, walking every day, and getting to bed earlier. That, probably more than anything else, accounted for my rosy cheeks and bright eyes. The lift in my step. They noticed all these things. You can't get much past the ladies at church. 

"Nope. No babies or new men," I said, laughing.

So, later, when my friend commented, I simply said that I'd had an attitude change. And that it made all the difference for me. And it has. I'd been noticing that my stress has been higher lately and that I'd been over-functioning at work. My life had tipped out of balance and I'd taken a couple of weeks to restore that balance. Nutrition, movement, meditation, rest, boundaries, time in nature, time with friends, and other lifestyle adjustments have helped me to experience many of my days as nearly perfect.

Mornings are critical. When I start the day well, the rest seems to flow more smoothly. It's as if I am setting a context for the rest of the day, creating a container to hold what I'd like to pour into my day. 

I've done that on many levels. Created a container to hold the life I'd like to live. Lightened things up a bit.

And for now, things feel nearly perfect. 

The Great Summer Writing Retreat of 2019 is a riff off a Natalie Goldberg retreat I attended a few years ago, where every day we wrote from prompts and shared what we wrote. Part of my second annual 100 Day Summer Writing Practice, I'll be writing whatever comes to mind and not editing my ideas. So, writing and putting that writing out into the world. Every. Single. Day.