Wriggle room and wanderings!

My friend, Genevieve suggested that the word margin might be more appropriate than the word laziness which I talked about here. Having margins is about building rest or spaciousness in to your every day life. Not just heaving a sigh of relief if something is cancelled! It's about NOT giving 110% (how I hate that phrase!)  Allowing margin is having some wriggle room.She also mentioned that her daughter (clearly gentle wisdom runs in this family) talked about the rhythm of a day needing to be like inhaling and exhaling. She wrote Inhaling being working, producing, cooking, learning, active thinking… And exhaling being exercising, napping, just sitting and doing nothing. Each day needs both...Like Gen, I realised that there's not much exhaling going on sometimes. And precious little wriggle room. For rest, or error or anything else! Yesterday evening, amidst packing for Nepal, packing up our house, racing through the lists in my brain, I saw Mal on the deck feeding his beloved gang gangs. Exhaling. I stopped whatever it was I was doing and joined him to sit on the steps with seed in my hands. Two birds came and fed as ten or so others swooped around impatiently. We were still and quiet and happy. It was lovely.I don't think I'm alone in struggling with building in spaciousness. I recently ran my traditional New year classes. Some glorious women and I met together and talked about the kind of qualities we'd like to bring into our year; what we'd like more of....things like rest, self-kindness, connection, pauses, freedom, creativity. Things that are harder to experience in days without margins. We talked about how tough we are on ourselves; how we pressure ourselves to be perfect. We chatted and read and played and made shards which we used to create a piece, like a talisman, to wear as a reminder of our hopes and intentions. I've included a few photos of these beautiful and significant creations with this post!All things being equal, as you read this I'll be in Nepal again. This time travelling with a polymer holy trinity! Kathleen Dustin, Cynthia Tinapple and Ron Lehocky are heading to Nepal to visit the women of Samunnat. I'm meeting Kathleen in Kathmandu on Sunday and the other will join us in Birtamod.  Kathleen, Cynthia and Ron are a very significant part of the Samunnat family and I am so excited that they will finally be THERE to see how things roll! And to be felicitated to within an inch of their lives! I'll be posting photos on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/after_the_monsoon/ (My Insta swansong I suspect!)