The car temperature gauge said 53 degrees, but in my little alcove up against the sandstone cliffs I feel warm enough to take off my fleece jacket.  The sky is “Regulation Fog Grey” with the color reflected on to the water, mixed with a hint of ocean green.  Every once in a while I feel slight sprinkles of fog falling on me; my hair starts to actively curl and get lively as it drinks in the moisture.  The waves are loud today. The water is calm and almost smooth until the rollers form just before they break crashing on the shore and rolling back underneath the next wave, but there are no white caps out beyond the shoreline.  There are not many birds flying, and those that are, are flying silently.  Just in the one or two second lull between waves, I can hear the moan of the foghorn. In this moment, there is nothing but the ocean and me.

Remember, after standing in a doorway and pressing arms out against the frame, the feeling of lightness and freedom when you would turn and your arms would lift away from your body?  That magical feeling as gravity was defied and arms floated?  (If you never did that, or haven’t in a while, I recommend it.) It is the absence of pressure that allows the arms to rise up without effort,

I think it is a good example of how we can feel when we let go of the holding patterns we have in our lives, be they physical or emotional/spiritual.  We tend to hold on to what we know, how we have been, and we can get so caught up in our patterns that we tend to not see opportunities where we can shift, make a change, learn a new way. 

We hear a lot about meditation, contemplation….some form of actively working on stilling the mind, or letting the stressors go. I am all for it.  But I am also all for just stopping to be fully and completely aware of the moment, and recognizing and feeling it fully. To drink it a moment, to let everything else go and to be free of stress and burden and worry…even just for a moment…can be a great healing experience.  And, the more we do it, the more we can be aware to do it more often.