I'd go crazy if I didn't keep lists.  I keep them for everything - article ideas I want to submit, chapters for my novel and ideas for new ones, work projects (with deadines),  groceries, Christmas gifts, party plans - well, you get the picture.  If you have a minute, write down a list to keep yourself organized.  You can't live up to your full potential if you're constantly running around looking for things you lost, rushing to make payments on bills you forgot or running out to get dinner because you don't have all the right ingredients on-hand.  If  you have a few minutes, get yourself a small notebook or learn how to use the notes feature on your blackberry - whatever you have - just start a list.  Start small - maybe bills that need paid this week (with due dates) or healthy dinners you've been wanting to try. To make it easy, I've provided a link for healthy five ingredient dinners. Making lists won't fix all that ails ya but doing so may calm the chaos just a litle - and wouldn't that be a miracle!
 
 
A God box is a place to put things that you might be worried about.  Write your worry down on a piece of paper, fold it up and put it in the God box.  Say a litte prayer to God or to the Universe if that's what you beleive.  Then forget about your worry - it's in the God box meaning it's in God's hands or in the hands of the universe. And then trust that it will all work out!  If you have one minute, find an old box or container around the house to use as a God box. 
 
 
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has proclaimed the month of November as Adoption Awareness Month.  Spend a minute today determining how you can help this worthy cause.  Are you thinking of adopting or becoming a foster parent?  If so, pick up the phone and make that call.  Can you donate to an adoption charity or cause?  And even though it isn't what Governor Kaine had in mind, don't forget about adopting a four legged friend - animals need adoption too.  This could be a one minute miracle that lasts for a long, long time!
 
 
Make a gratitude list and keep it near your bed or carry it with you.  Spend a minute writing down the things you are grateful for.  My gratitude list includes my daughters, my parents and extended family, my health, our pets (sometimes - see blog below for paper eating incident).  My job and the fact that I have some freelance writing opportunities are also on the list as is my house, my jeep and of course, my friends.  But keep the list simple, take a minute to write it and add to it each day. Theologian Meister Eckhart wrote "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough"...and he was so right!
 
 
When I started this blog, I had every intention of blogging at least a few times a week.  Of course, at that time, I had less demands too as I had just gotten laid off from my job at Circuit City.  And I've since gone back to work, which is where I spend my days and a big bulk of my time. That said, I was trying to think of ways I could continue to blog without spending a big chunk of time writing.  I also thought that, if I didn't have a lot of time to write, most of you probably wouldn't have a lot of time to read, right? 

So I came up with my One Minute Miracle idea while I was writing a freelance article yesterday.  The article was called how to be thankful when you don't feel like it.  I incorporated an idea about writing a gratitude list which really shouldn't take a whole lot of time.  It made me realize that we often have a free minute or two throughout the day where we could stop and have a mini attitude adjustment, so I thought I would start to write these One Minute Miracle blogs with ideas that I'll research on things that can be done to enhance  a person's serenity in a minute (or two or three).  And I'll share them here so we can all benefit from getting a little bit of peace throughout the day.   I'll start it tomorrow though, because the dog's eating paper and the kids are yelling and I took more than a minute just to write these few lines.  But I'll be back tomorrow...I have a feeling I'm going to need it!
 
 
I've been home all week with my daughter who has the flu and strep throat.  She's just been knocked out by these bugs and it's tough to see her feeling so sick.  The nice thing for me is that she wants me around a lot which is unusual.  Well, not really - she does seem to like me around but has her moments when she wants to be alone and I get it.  So I'm feeling all nice thinking about the Harry Potter marathon we are planning for today as I take her sister to school.  As I'm driving there, I hear a DJ come on KISS XM - a station that technically should not have anyone talking. I purchase satellite radio so I don't have to listen to people talk.  Anyway, she comes on as Breaking Away by Kelly Clarkson starts to play and she announces how some guy had a heart attack at Kelly's recent concert.  Then the DJ in her infinite wisdom and unending wit says "and he was also baffled by the size of her thighs". 

Okay, I'm maybe going to go out on a limb here, but I don't think that was really necessary, do you?  I mean - a guy died.  A guy who might have had a family (certainly had parents, possibly siblings, maybe a wife and kids).  Maybe he took his daughter to the concert and she'll have that memory to deal with every time she hears Kelly sing.  Maybe he was there on a date.  Who knows.  But the fact is, he was there and he died.  Does this DJ really need to make a joke about it?  Not to mention how insulting her comment was to Kelly too.  Who is this DJ and why such an absence of class?  To get listeners?  Ya just lost one. I know in the overall scheme of things, that means little but I won't be listening to your station anymore. 

You can't really hide from it - Michael's body wasn't even cold yet and the jokes were all over facebook.  People I considered friends laughing at his expense.  Does it make it easier to be morbidly funny at a time like this?  Does it make people feel better about themselves?  I don't get it. I don't want to resort to the colloquial 'mean people suck' because that puts me on the same level.  But I don't want toxicity in my life.  So I hid further comments from the 'friends' on facebook and I'll be sure to find a better station on XM.  Because it's up to me to surround myself with that which leaves me feeling good...and so I shall.
 
 
Well, regardless of all the resistance I could muster, back to school week came anyway.  Even though I didn’t really have those lazy-days of summer that some folks might have enjoyed, I still had a soccer-free, piano free, Religious Education (RE) free three two and a half months.  But, that’s about to change.  Because starting tomorrow, not only are my kids going back to school, they are also back to soccer, guitar, piano, acting lessons and RE and, for that matter, so am I.

Gone are the days of sleeping in until 6:20 a.m.  Now, I am up at six so I can wake my youngest up at 6:20.  She gets on the bus at 7:08 and her sister at 7:45.  Then it’s off to work until 4:30 when I race to the Learning RX Center to pick up the youngest who attends daily.   Leaving there at 5, we race home (lots of racing, I know) to meet the guitar teacher on Monday and the piano teacher on Thursday both who arrive at 5:15.  It’s a close call; but we can make it.  If nothing, that is, goes wrong.  Wednesdays and Fridays we have a little more leeway as we don’t have to have my oldest to soccer practice until 6. Saturday mornings are games and Sunday mornings we have RE which both girls attend and I teach.  Somehow we have to fit homework and music practice along with dinner and showers into the evenings.  If only I didn’t have to sleep!

But there is a way to stay sane and even serene during these crazy back-to-school days.  First off, I tell myself that we will get into a routine so I’m not going to let fear make me nuts this early in the game.  Second, I really have to keep things organized around my house.  I do so by keeping a daily calendar where I write down everything including when I need to wear a suit to work and what I need to pick up at the store.  I carry it with me in my purse and even though it’s bulky, it has saved me on numerous occasions from over-committing.

I keep an excel spreadsheet for my bills on my PC.  I keep them separated into columns so I don’t miss any payments.  I even wrote an eHow.com article which you can see here.  I shop twice  a month and I plan 15 days worth of easy meals -in my calendar - so I know what we’re eating and what I need to buy.  I keep the grocery list there too.

But Sunday afternoon is really my key time to make sure I have everything done for the week.  Since I do my shopping on a Saturday evening (I know, boring…but it works for me), I have everything I need to make a few dinners on Sunday.  I make fillings for taco, casseroles, and pasta or fruit salads.  I chop veggies for salads and I pack anything I can for the girls’ lunches.  I buy a $2.00 bag of popcorn and separate it into baggies in single serving sizes. (Hey, single mom on a budget, what can I say?)  I slice strawberries and bag them up too.  That frees up my evenings as I only have to make their sandwiches and throw it and the baggies into a lunch box with a napkin and viola - I’m done.

I wash soccer uniforms and gym uniforms.  I buy extras of both of them too - it is worth the investment because I seem to always have a clean one on hand.  I also wash shin guards and goalie gloves making sure they’re ready for the week ahead.  Even though soccer practice isn’t until Wednesday, I make sure the bag is packed so it’s ready.

I also take care of sundry details like going to the bank, filling prescriptions, buying dog food or filling up my car.  I don’t have time to stop during the week so I make sure that’s all done on Sunday afternoons. 

By about 5:00 on Sunday, I am pretty much finished with errands so we can just chill on Sunday evenings.  It would be nice to have a whole day to relax but it’s not happening around here for this single mom any time soon so we do what we can with what we have.  And take it one day at a time.
 
 
A few months ago, I heard a story from someone I admire.  She was driving along the road and spotted a hawk flying overhead. She watched the hawk floating along for quite a distance and then when the hawk seemed to fly over the woods off of the road, she pulled off the road into the woods and continued to follow the hawk. The journey finally ended when she couldn’t proceed any further into the woods.  In that space, she pulled out her journal and wrote in that peaceful, secluded spot. 

I envy that.  Had it been me, I wouldn’t have noticed the hawk…or the road, or the forest or the trees or anything else.  I’m usually so full of what’s going on at work, what the kids need, what errands I need to do, what jobs I have in my freelance queue, and so on that I generally forget where I am or how I got there.  I envy someone who is so mindful of their surroundings that they can notice beauty in front of them and not stop there.  But they can actually make a conscious decision to follow the beauty simply to see where it leads.

As much as I try to practice mindfulness, I often forget.  I start out with every intention but distractions set in and before I know it, I’m thinking of my bucket list, my errand list or any number of other things  I have going on at the moment.

However, instead of getting frustrated with myself lately, I have decided to own it.  This is how I am right now and I am owning that fact.  Instead of saying ‘wow, I’m distracted, I wish I weren’t’ - I simply own that I have lots going on and I’ll meditate when the thought occurs to me.  It will happen when I need to.  Of maybe I’ll set aside a few moments each morning and just spend it quietly to see what unfolds.  It takes the pressure off, it really does.

But I am trying to be more conscious of my surroundings so I can see the forest through the trees and see beauty above me, around me, or in front of me.  And when I do, I hope I can remember to follow it.  Because if I do, when I get there, what’s waiting for me is going to be so much more important than the things I’m occupying my mind with right now.

 
 
 
I’m curious to see where the line crosses from wanting and needing time alone into isolating from everyone and everything.  My soul usually craves time alone now where I just want the opportunity that I so rarely receive, to sit in quiet meditation either in the yard or somewhere in my home, and just see what happens. I firmly believe that the reason I can’t hear God answering my prayers is that I have too much chatter going on to listen.  Either there are kids playing or dogs barking or television/ipod/guitar heros/insert noun here and there is so much noise that I can’t even hear myself think let alone hear God speaking to me in that quiet way He has.  So when opportunity knocks, I’m listening.  And when I do, I usually hear or at least intuitively feel something that I need to work on about myself. 

But taking those precious moments truly does require giving up something else and that usually is time spent with a friend.  So where is the line?  How can I balance spending time with friends and other loved ones but also find time for myself when spare time is virtually non-existent for a single, working mom like me?  If you’re expecting some answer to a seemingly rhetorical question, you won’t find it here…because I don’t know.  It’s a precarious balance for me and one that I seem to be losing.  I insist of spending that time in quiet because my soul is screaming for it right now.  It’s like there is something on the tip of my tongue or right around the corner and I know it’s there but I just can’t get to it.  So when I get the chance, I’m going to be quiet and listen because I really want to see what’s around that corner.  I want the solution to the problem - that answer that is on the tip of my tongue.  Unfortunately, other things - like relationships - are put on the back burner. 

One thing I do know is that I tend to isolate when I get resentful about something so maybe that is the answer.  If all is right with my spiritual self, and I want to sit and meditate and spend an evening or a week or hell…even a summer by myself - as long as I’m not doing it to avoid people, then that’s okay and that’s called solitude.  But if I’m feeling angry or bitter or resentful or the like, that’s when it becomes isolation and the solution to that problem is usually to do some writing or make an amends or just generally work on that problem until I figure it out.

 Maybe it’s not as important to see where the line crosses as it is to see what the line is made of.
 
 

Distractions are everywhere lately.  I can’t seem to avoid them and they are interrupting my routine.  Well, isn’t that what distractions do though? I remember reading a meditation book not long ago by Thich Nhat Hanh.  It was about mindful living and how we should focus on the tasks at hand by breathing.  Even a mundane task like doing dishes should be performed in a mindful way.  He said something to the effect that we should say (to ourselves) this mantra when performing the task:  “Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile.” 

And that’s really well and good to think about doing but I rarely think about doing breathing meditations until I am pretty much choking to death.  Then the decision to breathe mindfully kicks in.   Relaxing techniques like these should be performed throughout life and I feel pretty certain that the point of doing them is to avoid stressful situations from occurring.

But sometimes it’s impossible for me to be mindful. My mind just goes a million miles a minute. If I’m not thinking about my to-do list at work, I’m thinking about the kids' schedules or which freelance article is due next or when is the contractor scheduled to come or did I pay the mortgage this month.  Juggling two kids, a full-time job, a home and all that goes with it, two dogs and writing freelance gets a little dicey.   Every single one of these things (kids, job, dogs, etc.) is wonderful and I love them equally but they all require tremendous amounts of attention and sometimes I forget about myself as a result.

I got distracted yesterday doing some freelance work and the dog let me know that I forgot all about him. I won’t bore you with the details of how he did this.  Suffice it to say, I won’t be forgetting about him any time soon.

I got distracted putting eye makeup on this morning and nearly poked my eye out with an eye shadow brush.  It hurt all morning which got me to thinking of ways to try to keep all these distractions from surfacing. 

I intentionally distract myself too - from life.  I sometimes find myself playing computer games for a lot longer than I should.  I guess I feel like I am doing something - but I’m really wasting time.  I messaged my friend Kevin and said I wasn’t going to play at all today.   I’ve stuck to that - and viola - I wrote a blog.  First time in 3 weeks.  Imagine that!

 I don’t know if I’m going to stop playing computer games forever or if I am going to sit mindfully outside and look at the giant trees in my front yard (like I also did this evening) every single day.  I seriously doubt that distractions  will stop surfacing entirely.  But I do know that I have a choice.  I know that if I want serenity, I can practice mindfulness a little bit. I can breathe in and be calm.  I can breathe out and smile.  Or I can waste time distracting myself from getting where I want to be.