Mindful Writing Challenge 2013

Another post without photos.  Why is that?  I intentionally left all my camera gear in Belize so I wouldn’t have to haul it back down while dealing with importing the cat to Belize.  I am really stressed about traveling with Max.  She doesn't like to travel and this will be a very long trip starting at 5:00am in Rochester and ending about 12 hours later in Belize City.  We will stay overnight in the city and travel the rest of the way to Englishtown the next day.  Our dear friends Sue and Chris (of Steppingstones) are picking us up and driving us to our new home.  But, to get back to this post, I don’t need photos for today's post, which is to introduce the “Mindful Writing Challenge 2013”.  You can find out more about the challenge here. 

I joined the challenge, which is to post a small written thought (called a “small stone”) describing something you encountered during the day, as you can see by the icon on the righthand side of this page.  I hope this will encourage me pay more attention to the moment and not stress out about all the turmoil.  I thought this exercise would be somewhat therapeutic for me during these major changes as we move our primary residence to Belize.  I figure it is similar to a photo made of words. But  - if you are put off by the words, just skip them; there will be plenty of photography and Belize natural history in a little more than 1 week. (Yikes - stress again!)

Although the challenge doesn’t start until January, I decided to get started early.  My first attempt is to describe what I felt early on the morning of December 3^rd when I put birdseed out as the sun was just rising.

Deceptively warm, the December morning air

whispers “Spring” across my skin.

Happily complicit, I savor its touch,

denying that cold truth will prevail.

Nan, of Tiny River Splash blog, was my inspiration to join.  Hope some of you will join the Challenge, too.