Hi, friends,
I hope you’re staying warm (or cool) wherever you are. Portland weather for the last week has been filled with snow and ice storms, and things are finally melting in my neck of the woods. I feel fortunate not to have lost electricity or heat. My only issue was being unable to leave the house or thereabouts. But enough melting had occurred by yesterday that I could spend a good hour with my next door neighbor breaking up and shoveling ice from in front of garages.
I even made it to the grocery store.
Thanks to the grocery trip, I did a little cooking last night—made a pot of spaghetti with meat sauce and lots of mushrooms. Sometimes when I do that, everything stays relatively neat and in its place. But not this time. That meat sauce splattered all over the stovetop, tiny splotches of red on white.
It reminded me of how I’ve basically been a walking emotion for a handful of months now. I mean, I’ve always been excellent at feeling. No problem understanding what I’m feeling or why, even if it takes some investigating to figure out. I’m just rarely so overwhelmed by feelings that I have a hard time with detailed or logical thinking.
My emotions have felt like that splatter of sauce on the stove.
A sponge and some soapy water took care of the sauce. The emotions are harder to clean up—and really, cleaning up isn’t what’s needed so much as less overwhelm. Sitting meditation (following the progress of breath through my body) helps, although of course when I’m a walking explosion of feelings I don’t actually want to sit still.
Which means deep breathing (sometimes called vase breathing) is the way to go. Breathe in and let my belly expand first, then my lungs. Enough of that and I can sit still—or at least feel less overwhelmed and maybe just whelmed.
Whelmed is all right.
Wishing you peace and tasty, comforting (and perhaps less messy) eats,
Leslie
P.S. Here’s a Miss Peanut pic from the week of snow and ice. She had the right idea.