How much time do you spend on ‘go-mode’, rushing around as if the world would stop spinning otherwise?  For this Type A, recovering workaholic, the act of doing such is a not-so-distant memory. My friend Amy Storm used to say that I was running around with my hair on fire. I would offer that there were times when I would burn the candle at both ends so that often there was no wax more left and that I was running on adrenalin and fumes. That was until my healer friend Karen Fairman told me while I was lying on her table ready for an IET  (Integrated Energy Therapy) session feeling more than a bit wiped out, that my adrenals weren’t in the best condition.

In the past few years, I have sporadically gone up and down with my energy levels. It wasn’t until after I experienced the death of my mother and found my way through the maze of the business of taking care of her finances, that I truly slowed my pace, of necessity and choice. I felt subdued and mildly shut down, in a wee bit of protective of my hurting heart mode. The professional social worker/minister/POA/executor of her estate gave way to the daughter who was now an adult orphan. Ever the social butterfly, I declined some invitations that I would have jumped at before. My schedule was always jam packed with work and play. I used to say the sleep was highly over-rated when there was fun to be had. The only challenge now that I have eased my pace a bit, is that my body clock still wakes me up at dark o’clock. Gotta regulate that.

What I have noticed is that it frees me up to have more quiet, still, intimate moments with people in my life, when I’m not attempting to squeeze in time with them. I feel more present and mindful. Gratitude and grace have taken the place of the desire to impress or meet everyone’s needs.  I am learning to glide across the floor rather than break dance. Spontaneity has stepped in when once upon a time, things felt like they had to be planned and regimented.

How much more life would you like to have time for?  I choose all of it.

A blast from my past  http://youtu.be/TBQxG0Z72qM  59th Street Bridge Song/Feeling Groovy by Simon and Garfunkel, accompanied by The Smothers Brothers