Suaimhneas: Living Goddess

“Life doesn’t stop due to weather. It doesn’t matter if it’s hot or cold, if you have work then you have to do it.”

― Paballo Seipei

I awoke around 3:30 this morning and decided I would turn off the alarm and get up. It’s funny to remember those days when I ran the Power Track and my truck driver boyfriend would pick me up around 2:30 or 3 a.m. to spend the day at work with him. I would be still awake, just closing shop, but he would have been to bed and gotten up at what I believed was an ungodly horrendous hour. It’s a bizarre turn-around made even more so when I realize that I get much more sleep now than I ever did back then. Nearly six hours of sleep last night, in fact. How on earth is it possible to have gotten a regular night’s rest and still gotten up at 3:30 in the morning?! It boggles my mind and I’m the one doing it!

I feel and have always felt that any time spent asleep before midnight is more restorative than all the time spent afterward. I can go to bed at half past midnight, sleep until 9 am and feel totally crappy and exhausted. I can go to bed at 8:30 pm and wake at 11:30 pm a few hours later feeling like surely it must be time to get up because I’m so well rested and energized, realizing I still have hours left to snooze is icing on the cake.

Today was the coldest morning this week, since we’ve started walking. Well below -20 Celsius when I first woke and a decent -19 by the time we ventured out around 6 am. I doubled up on long socks and two pairs of stretchy pants. It was the kind of frigid morning when you step outside and the wooden steps snap out loud echoing like gunshots, your breath lingers in a thick mist around your head, and your nostrils tighten. I knew Pat would get cold quickly, so I bundled up before he arrived and did a lap around the driveway to inspect the state of the road. The grader went past a few times yesterday and the road looked primed for instances of black ice. Oddly, the best parts of the road were right in front of my house and my parents, mostly bare and easy to walk in the centre. But further down and away from any streetlights parts were a sheet of smooth ice. We only went as far as Hershel’s and Pat was still frozen by the time we reached home. I did a couple of more laps around the dooryard after he left, just to make sure I got a decent amount of steps and fresh air. Although none of that really mattered. The point of today was that we went at all in the freezing cold. We did it! We showed up for ourselves and each other! And that is a huge victory I think regardless of how far or fast we went.

The morning was so cold that my mini-split froze up and started blowing cold air. I turned it on to the dry mode for a half hour to thaw. I’ve only had to do that one other time this winter. So far we haven’t had much of winter, it’s been fairly mild and mostly rainy, but the snow is starting to pile up now and the temperatures have definitely dropped.

The early morning coupled with a few days getting just over 5 hours of sleep caught up with me this afternoon and pretty much rendered me useless for the rest of the afternoon. Making a super early night of it, and while I might not sleep I am going to be snug in my bed by 7 pm, resting and relaxing and hopefully sleeping at least 7 hours before I get up again.

Slacked off a bit today 12/15, but still very decent day and shaping up to be a pretty awesome week.

1. Drink water, matcha, green and hibiscus teas √
2. Eat more vegetables and fruits than anything else
3. Exercise √
4. Go outside √
5. Remember to stretch and squat √
6. Read or listen to a book √
7. Make your bed √
8. Enjoy the little things √
9. Be conscious and present √
10. Live in a tidy place √
11. Go outside √
12. Try new things and give yourself permission to fail
13. Work with intention
14. Laugh loudly and often √
15. Live with gratitude √