Your heart and soul know what you need, and what it wants, but the plan doesn’t deviate. To sum it up in one word, I’d choose ‘water’, and it’s a series of small things that water mine.

Over the weekend, I made a decision to take time for ritual, especially in the morning. I’d noticed some unfavorable habits at night that were wrecking my morning. My phone had entered the bedroom again, which used to be a big no in my world. Taking that as my start, the phone is turned off before bed and left lying in the middle of the house. When I awoke the next morning, out of habit, my feet took me directly to my phone, but I didn’t turn it on. Instead, I moved away and into the day without it.

The earlier I wake up, the more time I have to practice, but last night we had thunderstorms, so I didn’t sleep very well. When that happens, I tend to oversleep and was disappointed to look at the clock and see that I didn’t have as much time today as Monday. A Zoom was scheduled for 11:00 am, so time was limited to practice before preparing for the Zoom. Halfway through my practice I decided to write my daughter a note to mail along with a photo she’d sent. That entailed turning my phone on to use the photo printing app, which was good timing, because a message came in asking to reschedule the Zoom.

This isn’t easy and it’s going to take time to get it right. All I’m doing is allowing time for it and something magical happens when we decide to do just that. If I hadn’t listened to my heart to print the photo, my phone would’ve stayed off until time for the Zoom and the message would’ve been missed.

I knew I needed to unschedule my mornings for this practice but didn’t say anything to my co-worker except to reschedule the Zoom and let me know. Afterwards I wished I’d asked for a later time and thought, “Noon would be perfect”. Later, the email came in showing the time and day had been changed for the Zoom. It was now, Thursday at noon. I smiled at the email and clicked ‘yes’ to accept the invitation, but this confirmed I’m on the right path in returning to ritual for mornings.