BDL (Big Daddy Lion) is on vacation this week.  An obvious perk of homeschool is freedom from summer. Summer, the bone they throw children, the hottest foulest season of the year.  They can have it.  We like to get outside together as much as possible in the spring and fall.  We try to visit the beach for at least a weekend, each of those seasons.  Later today we'll head down east and be on the sand in two and half hours.

Since my early twenties, I've been trying to remember to relax.  Relaxing isn't so easy as we like to think.  For me, it happens when I hike, near big water, in hot tubs, during sex/laughter/tears, or through meditation.  Meditation being not the strongest method but the most direct and conscious with the added bonus of availability in grocery lines, at traffic lights, near screaming children, or even before you fully wake in the morning.

I try to relax before I get out of bed.  You might think you wake up relaxed.  Unlikely.  Its surprising how much tension we can hold even through sleep.  And consciously relaxing your body and mind before you sit up and start the daily blather is, well, eye opening.  We clench in our sleep, grasping at or against life before we're even fully awake.

Usually I forget about relaxing completely.  I'm best at the forgetting and the clenching.  But lately, partly because BDL is on vacation and partly because we are facing some huge life changes, I have to make a point to try harder (grasp more frantically?) at relaxing.   Which is kind of funny because, of course, everyone is always facing huge life changes.  

I enjoy this artist's work.  Hum, maybe a new necklace would help me remember?