Light, Naturally

The tricky part about today's challenge was not the earliness of the hour—I'm up at 6:15 and out of the house by 7 to take Heidi to school—but rather the dearth of natural light this morning due to the gloomy weather. Even so, I did my best. 

On the first Monday of the month, I have to find something to do after I drop Heidi off because that's when our cleaning lady comes. When I retired, we scaled back that luxury from once a week to once a month because we didn't want Estela to lose that income all at once. I usually go grocery shopping at my favorite store, which is about 30 minutes away, but I'm finished before Estela is, so I need another activity. Today I took the scenic route home and stopped at an overlook with views of the Potomac and Mount Vernon. It was raining, but I spotted a couple of cormorants and a great blue heron. I'd like to think I got a little natural light as I enjoyed the vista.

And now? I'm writing in the dimness of a still rainy afternoon, the only artificial light is from my screen, and I'm about to shut that down until tomorrow.

RBF Begone

Body scan meditations are not new to me, but recently, I noticed that my face is super tense, especially around my mouth and forehead, and almost all the time. So lately, I have been focusing on relaxing my face whenever it occurs to me, but especially when I'm walking the dog. Whenever I pass someone, I make sure I have a neutral expression, and if they choose to make eye contact, I smile.

That may seem outrageously basic to some people, but other introverts can probably relate to the challenge. I will say this, though: a little nod and a smile can go a long way. Now, if I happen to see someone more than once, they often smile and nod at me first.

I think that's progress.

More than a Game

A few weeks ago I was cleaning out the closet and found my old basketball. It had been a really nice ball in its day, a luminous leather model, but the years had not been kind to it. Now it was faded and slick, an indoor ball no longer fit to play with. 

I set it aside, but kept it in mind, and the other day, when some errands landed us in a sporting goods store, their NCAA tourney display caught my eye immediately, and we walked out with a new WNBA-approved outdoor basketball. Today was the day when I convinced Heidi that our workout should include heading up to the school playground and shooting some hoops. 

The blue ball felt great in my hands, bouncy and grippy, and I dribbled my way up the stairs and across the parking lot to get to the hoop. "Let's play until we make a hundred shots!" I suggested to Heidi, and she shrugged and sighed, humoring me. As I lofted the ball up, I felt all the years since I last shot a basket. "Oof!" I reacted as it clanged off the rim. I rebounded and tried again without success, but the third time was the charm. Heidi was rusty, too, and as we shot and rebounded and passed and shot again and chased the ball all over the place, I knew it was going to be a pretty good workout. 

At one point, Heidi took a playful granny shot, and I was transported back to second grade. I remembered our PE teacher lining us up at the foul line on our playground court and instructing us on shooting. The boys were taught overhand, but the girls had to shoot granny-style. I could not make a shot for the life of me, and I really wanted to. So much so that I borrowed a basketball every day at recess and practiced, but I still couldn't do it. 

I told my mom about it, and she asked me each night at dinner if I had made it yet. Every night, I shook my head until one night, when she asked me, I said yes, even though I hadn't. 

"No, you didn't," she replied.

I was amazed she could tell I was lying, and a little scared, too. "I'm sorry, I just really wanted it to be true," I told her.

"When you make it," she said, "you'll be so excited that I'll know." 

And she was right. The day I finally got the ball in the hoop, it was the first thing I told her when I got home from school. "I knew you could do it!" she said and hugged me. "And I'm especially proud of how hard you worked to do it."

Today, it took Heidi and me a while to get our hundred shots, but you can bet we did it.

A Few Ounces of Prevention

I read recently that to stay hydrated, you should divide your body weight by half, and that's the number of ounces of water you should drink every day. So, for example, a 100-pound person should ideally consume 50 ounces of water daily. 

My recommended amount didn't seem like much of a stretch, and that's the goal I started with when I read this prompt this morning. At 5:45, I'm about three-quarters of the way there, and I won't switch over to my evening beer until I make it.

The healthy eating bit also seemed easy enough to me. I almost always eat food I have prepared myself from whole ingredients, and today was no different. I had homemade sourdough toast and an egg for breakfast, roasted carrot and avocado salad for lunch, and popcorn for a snack. For dinner, I'm baking organic chicken thighs and serving them with pasta,  mushrooms, and greens from our CSA share. 

I'm also having that beer, which can be described as natural, but not necessarily healthy. In fact, based on newer research,  the mainstream media has been refining its stance on drinking for the last couple of years, and most articles on that subject these days remind readers that despite some nutritional benefits of fermented beverages like beer and wine, no amount of alcohol can be considered healthy.

It's always kind of a bummer to me whenever I read that, but maybe? I'll have a little extra water to compensate. 😉

Hark!

There's a commercial on TV recently that makes me giggle every time I see it. The product is Repatha, a medication designed to lower LDL cholesterol, and in the ad, a woman and her CGI heart are sitting side-by-side on a couch, recounting the experience of a heart attack for a mostly unseen interview team. 

The recovering heart has a band-aid over her left eye, and what makes me laugh is both how earnest the two of them are, the lady and her heart, and also the genuine affection they have for each other: smiling, laughing, and finishing each other's sentences. Their determination to avoid another heart attack is very authentic. And what also cracks me up is the soft instrumental version of Listen to Your Heart, the '80s ballad with the slightly off lyrics by the Swedish band Roxette. 

The whole spot is as silly as an SNL sketch, and when I read today's prompt, I couldn't get either the song or the commercial out of my head. Even so, I did pay attention to what seemed easy and what seemed hard to do today. I was sleepy this morning, but grateful that I slept soundly last night. My legs were a little cranky walking up Superman Hill, and I was huffing a bit at the top, but I got there and continued for a nice 3-mile walk. I made a few modifications to the yoga kriya when I did it, but I stayed present for most of the meditation and felt good when I was done.

I still have that earworm, though!

As Possible

It was the "as possible" that turned out to be tricky for me. When you have a flexible schedule, as I do, it's theoretically possible to be outside all day. And yet the day dawned gray and cold with temperatures in the 40s. Even so, I bundled up and sat on the deck with my coffee, reading the morning news and puzzles. 

There was an unexpected twist to the day-- Heidi needed to get a gift for a colleague and had a block of free time from 11 to 1, so we spent that time together, which was lovely. And although my schedule is flexible, today I had a couple of commitments-- to bake bread for a neighbor and to go in after school to help Treat with some planning. Again, both activities were positive, and I felt great about them, but neither was outside.

But I did take Lucy for our now routine midday walk. Today it was 3 miles, and the brisk weather was invigorating rather than discouraging. The birds of the neighborhood seemed to agree with us, and we saw plenty of them-- crows, bluejays, sparrows, starlings, cardinals, doves, vultures, and hawks-- attending to their birdy business. 

And the blossoms! Forsythia, cherries, magnolias, crab apples, daffodils, the first tulips, and even some dogwoods all contribute to a gorgeous spring tableau. With every step, I tried to appreciate the beauty of the moment, and I think I did pretty well.

Active April

I get a monthly calendar from a group called Action for Happiness, which gives a daily wellness prompt based on a theme. This month's theme is "Active April," and here is today's challenge:

My plan is to commit to following the direction every day and then write about the experience. Here we go!

(Oh, and I also played pickleball and walked the dog 3 miles.)