I stepped into today just like pulling-on my favorite fleece sweatpants.  For various reasons, I have not been taking my morning walks this week until today, Friday.  The cool air brushes against my skin and with each step, I think to myself, “It is well.”  Fall’s vibrant reds and yellows delight my eyes and the sounds of birds chirping against the background of chainsaws buzzing through a neighbor’s tree fill my ears.  An early morning thunderstorm washed away any tracks left behind from the day before, making the wooded path feel all the more luscious.  A once dry creek bed gurgles gently.  I stand still in the middle of the path.  In the middle of God’s most beautiful painting.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve felt at the mercy of both planned and unplanned schedules.  Life and obligations coming together all at the same time.  Packages to be mailed, meals to be delivered, prescriptions filled, pills counted and dropped-off at school, all amidst the unplanned – a broken dryer and a stone blocking a saliva gland on one side of my neck.  So, I’ve been moving through the days with one side of my neck swollen-up like a chipmunk storing nuts and hauling laundry back and forth to a most gracious neighbor’s house.  Yes.  My body has been a bit more tired and fragile than usual.  At the same time, though, I am noticing the absence of a most familiar friend – anxiety.

I started noticing the calming of my heart after pushing through the first few weeks of my challenge to write for six-weeks in the raw while taking a writing class at the local Visual Arts center.  You may remember those first few posts written with sweaty hands and a pounding heart.  Fear of just letting go and putting myself out there.  Well, I finished my last class for this course earlier this week which also marks my last totally “raw” post.  With each week and each reading of my work, I noticed my body relaxing and my thoughts less focused on how things sound and more focused on just putting my thoughts down on paper.  I have done this before, in my journal, but never in a context where I have to share what I have written with others.  I’m not really sure whether I am a better writer because of taking this course, but I do believe that I am a more peaceful writer.  I am at peace with where I am in the world.  At my core, I know that I am supposed to create with words, paint and glue.  I don’t know where this need will lead me and for the first time, it is okay just to walk the path without knowing where I will end-up.  It is well with my soul.

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