No, I did not get up at 6 am.

Bugger - I failed! In fact I slept 10 hours last night getting up at 8 am. I feel enormously relaxed about it. I am usually very hard on myself or so I am told. Most often I think I could be harder on myself and GET THINGS DONE! I like to do things I like to do and time goes by very quickly. But when I have things to do that I don't particularly like, but they must be done, it seems to take forever. I know you know this. So now that I've really shortened my day by sleeping so long I feel I just have time for the the things I must do.........work, eat, wash, cook.......meditate. Hmmmm. It's really about not putting anything in categories. The MUSTS, the FUN STUFF - it's all just stuff. Someone's must do stuff is another's joy and leisure. Some things can be both. Meditation for me, is a must but it's also a joy......... Well, well, well.....a great opening has occurred in my mind - everything can be about being while doing, just stuff to do with no idea of good stuff or bad stuff or fun stuff etc.

When I watched my dad in his seemingly many last years of life lying in bed in a nursing home, not being able to talk or even turn himself in his bed, I thought I would always be grateful for being able to do stuff. How soon we forget! My dad loved to work. I never heard him grumble about "having" to get up and go to work. In fact he worked a few jobs at once. He got up most mornings at 5 am, drank coffee and played solitaire until he could go to work. In his later years I remembered his love of doing and working or even just putzing in his garage and thought how wonderful it would be if he could even just walk down the hall or dress himself. At this moment I am feeling so grateful to be able to do all these many things that I grumble about. I remember a quote in a magazine that said something like "as long as you have a window, life is exciting". My dad had a window and he was always looking out of it. And even in his bed he was amazed at life!