My house is quiet this weekend and I have been home for the most part. My family took off for a weekend of fishing and due to my dance company commitments on Sunday evening, I stayed behind. It has been so restful. I often don't realize how tired I've become until I suddenly take a break. On Saturday I had a full day of no required trips to anywhere - no Decorah, no Minneapolis, no Winona, no teaching, no rehearsals and no mommy taxi. It was quite the day. Don't get me wrong, I love all ( well at least most) of the things that my life is full of and I actually get a little scared when I have sudden drops in activity levels. My brain has a hard time slowing down. This weekend has been wonderful though. In fact the whole week up to it was great.

I...

·     made some new friends

·     found a new place to eat

·     experienced a new partnership

·     got to play with dance

·     performed 3 times at the MN Fringe with an awesome group of ladies

·     got some major web work done and strategic planning for my business

·     took ballet class - pink tights and all!

·     enrolled my firstborn in school for the first time

·     and actually took time to enjoy and be present in everything I did.

I think that last one is really the key to happiness. I get so caught up in looking ahead most of the time, that I miss what is going on around me. This morning I took my herd out for a leisurely stroll through our yard for breakfast. Most of the acreage is not mowed so they enjoy a feast as we walk. It wasn't too early but there was still dew on a good portion of the grass. I decided to move through the tall stalks to another area and was just about to plow through when I realized that there was a massive spider web in front of me. I like spiders. (Except for the medium grade, fuzzy ones.) They are amazing. Every day they start fresh and spin a new web. A web that is unique to the environment they are in and that serves the purpose they need. As I turned to back up, I saw another one behind me and soon realized that I was surrounded by probably 20 - 30 webs throughout the grass! Big ones! Getting down to my goat's eye view made them much more visible. It was beautiful. Had I continued to simply push through the grass I would have just ended up covered in sticky spider webs (and wondering if any fuzzy spiders were on my body) but that moment of slowing down let me catch a glimpse of something beautiful that happens every day in my backyard, something that can disappear in a moment if I don't slow down enough to see it.