Welcome to May.
Where I live, May is my favorite month. It’s warm. It’s green. Flowers are blooming only to be replaced by different flowers that are also suddenly blooming. This change is so rapid that it invites my attention. If I don’t stop to smell the lilac bush, I will miss it entirely a week later. If I don’t take a picture of that tulip, I will miss it. My daffodils are already gone.
And since I’m currently co-leading an eight week program on mindfulness (see my post here about Project Uplift) I’ve decided that I’m going to engage this month as Mindfulness May. I want to be present. I want to pay attention. And I invite you to join me.
Yesterday, I had to smile about this plan because I was riding my bike, and I knew I was nearing 1000 miles on the odometer. I was just a couple miles away, and I knew it would come during this ride.
“I want to watch it turn,” I said to myself. “I want to be mindful and notice it.” I also thought about how I would write a blog post about mindfulness and pledge to practice it during the month of May. I imagined that I would snap a photo of 1000 miles on the odometer and put it at the top of the post.
Well, guess what?
I became so enamored with my surroundings in nature and the wind on my face as I rode, that I got to a stop sign, looked down, and that odometer read 1001.8 miles. I missed it!
So the question is,
Was I less mindful because I missed it?
Or
Was I more mindful because my surroundings caught my attention and caused me to miss it?
🙂
A Merry Mindfulness May, friends,
— Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 