honor it

graffiti flower girl

(meant to be posted several hours ago! :)

My body is still waking up — I wanted to be up this morning at 4 or 4:30, but 5:30 was early enough to begin this week with. My early-morning-self got a talking to from the self that has to be awake and functional for the last Write Whole workshop tonight, and they came to a compromise.

The pup and I are working on a new schedule, one where I get up first and write before she and I go out for our walk — when she first came to live with us, I could get up at 4-something, then 5, and the sun was just peeking up over the hill, just lightening the sky; we could walk and I still had time to blog. Now the sun’s not up til after 6, and this one here typing has to be at the bus stop by 7:15, so we have to switch some things around.

She graduated from puppy school yesterday — at least her first class. We finished up Family Dog I at the Marin Humane Society! Then she came home and barked her head off at the neighbor’s friend’s dog (much to my frustration and embarrassment). So, we have some more work to do, of course. Graduating from kindergarten means it’s time to move up to first grade, time to keep learning and practicing.

Still, I’m so proud of her, and of us.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

What else is there for a Monday morning? Today my body is slipping into and out of tenseness, a slight sense of sick. Is it over-extension? How do you celebrate while also having to move on to the next thing? I’ve forgotten how to mark important events, how to honor accomplishments. I just run on to the next thing. We have to mark what works, though — positive reinforcement, remember? It’s easy only to focus on how much there is still to do, and not want to ‘waste time’ on marking how far we’ve come, how much amazingness has been achieved.

This kind of honoring is major self-care work, isn’t it?

The puppy is starting to fuss.

How do you mark, celebrate, honor, that something good and important has happened? How do your characters? Do you celebrate when you achieve something important, or do you just keep striving on for the next thing, waiting until the job is all done before you rest and celebrate?

If someone were to honor you for a recent accomplishment, what would that look like? (I would like a glass of wine and a song, for instance, for having done my laundry last night — sometimes, that is a major achievement.)

Write your own celebration — give yourself, that honoring, 10 minutes today. Begin with, “This is what we’re celebrating” or “This is how the celebration begins”, and follow your writing wherever it seems to want you to go.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

2 responses to “honor it