Beginning to Practice

Today is officially the first day of my sabbatical. I haven't had two+ months of time off since I lived in Atlanta more than thirteen years ago, and those days were riddled with existential questions about who I was going to be in the world, which these are not. Instead, I have the delicious chance to just be: to soak in the world around me without a constant work dialogue running through my head.
And oddly, (or maybe of course,) my first thought is about work. Throughout this year, my organization has been working with a teacher named Walter Link to learn about how to be more mindful by doing things like meditating and improving how we communicate with each other. 
When I first talked with Walter in December about practicing mindfulness, he said something that's stuck with me: 'We're always practicing something. It could be that we're practicing being anxious, or busy, or distracted, or we could practice being present.'
Today, I'm going to practice Being. Right. Here.
Here is a messy house with kids whom we were planning to have in school today so they could avoid the chaos of moving boxes and the packing away of toys — but it turns out that school is closed. Speaking of packing, being right here means doing a lot of it, more than I can wrap my head around since we leave for Montana in four days. But it also means a dance party in the kitchen and some buttermilk pancakes with my favorite people. Being right here is really good.

I feel like this mural I just saw.