....contented

Yogis,
It was a cold crisp night. From the deck I watched a big moon lifting herself over a nearly bare tree line. Salmon was cooking on the grill and the smoke filled air mingled with the lingering aroma of smoke in my hair from the firepit I had been sitting around.  

I’m wearing my most comfortable clothes. Jeans with a well-worn sweater and my trusty wool socks. My favorite flannel lined beanie, like an old friend, keeping me warm. Something makes me laugh and in that moment a wave of contentment washes through. Everything exactly as it should be. Needing nothing. Wanting nothing.

Content.

I think of the times where this sensation of fullness visits. When I am sitting on a rock at the edge of the river, sun warming my face and birds overhead. With eyes closed I experience perfection. Or hearing the crunching of leaves under our feet in the otherwise silent woods I am hiking through with my grandchildren. The rest of the world a distant memory as we find hollowed out logs or patches of moss for my little fairy figurine to sit and rest.

I feel it snuggled up on the couch with a blanket, a cup of hot tea in my hands and a good book in my lap. Taking that first spoonful of the soup I have been smelling all afternoon as it simmered on the stove. Sitting on the floor with my paints trying to capture the beauty I see through my window.

Contentment.

The definition of contented is ‘feeling or showing satisfaction with one’s possessions, status or situation.’ I am not sure that accurately describes the depths of peace I experience in these moments that I am recounting.

It isn’t as simple as being satisfied with my situation, but more like falling head over heels with exactly what is. It has no connection to my possessions or status and occurs in the simplest of times. When all else is stripped away and I can be present to the miracle of what is right here, that is when it flows and fills me to my edges.  My feet, my mind, my heart and my breath all in one place.

As we enter this week of gratitude it occurs to me that when I am content, these are also the times that the most gratitude pours through. Grateful for how things are. Grateful to the sun, birds, moon, smoke, rocks, leaves and my grandkid’s little feet in their boots. No ‘buts,’ or ‘if onlys’, or ‘as soon as.’

Ours is not a culture or economy that appreciates contentment. We have been trained to live from a place of lack. Taught to believe we will feel content once we make that next purchase, visit that country, buy that house or put that next big check in the bank. Or that somehow being content is settling for less. But contentedness is a far cry from a diminished life.

It rises from a well contained within when we stop to notice how exquisitely beautiful life is …….right now…..right here. I’ll ‘settle’ for that anytime!

Grateful to you for reading these words,
SARAH