Monday, Monday ... the giraffe looks over this expanse

The alarm beeped us out of bed at five twenty this morning. My sister and I are engaging a way of life not experienced in forty-three years ... living side by side, for the time being. For multiple reasons, now is very different from then. Now, we are both grownups. Our age difference then has virtually disappeared. A great advantage gained from this time marching on is that we can now intentionally support each other's goals. Our top shared goals these days?

1. Trim excess from our lives.
2. Revise lifestyle "set points" to promote focus and accomplishment in our final forty.
3. Harness feedback systems that restore balance as we cross this unknown sea.

Stepping off the porch into the dark, I carefully negotiate a rocky pathway until I reach a sidewalk that stretches past the village school. Quiet expands around us as I follow my sister's lead into the tiny village and on toward the water. A single street lamp spills light through the thick canopy of century-old maples. In a new dawn, we wend our way rhythmically toward Peconic Bay.

The vast expanse of dark waters contrasts with the narrowness of peninsula upon which we stand gazing outward. Absolute silence expands my inner awareness of this new day's possibilities for natural order, insights, observations, contemplation, deeper meanings and higher perceptions. A rustic boardwalk has allowed us to stand over the water's edge. I think to myself, "Someone built this boardwalk. Thank you!" A moment passes; "Someone visioned ... provisioned this modest, just enough yacht club. Thank you!"

I remember the tiny foam giraffe tucked into my pocket...a farewell gift from my daughter, Sara. The giraffe serves me this week as a totem, model, guide, perceptual medicine. "Thank you, giraffe, for showing me the way to 'let our head and neck float high' enough to catch an expansive view of each place and space we share."

Giraffe medicine allows us to more fully notice the people past and present who take up the slack in our lives together on this planet. We take up the slack when we envision something that begs to become in those spaces and places experienced, shared. It is actually the work of some of us to take up the slack for others. Work expands opportunities to share our visions, talents, inclinations ... even our drives! Engaging work anywhere allows us to cocreate, contribute, collaborate in life's positive evolution. In the words of Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D., through our positive engagement with others, we can "make things more wonderful" for each other.

As we cross the unknown seas this week, we pause periodically. We notice little and large contributions made by others near and far. These currently support our ability to make things better, healthier, happier ... more fulfilling, more insightful, more useful, practical, beautiful. Call upon giraffe medicine in the morning, during lunch, in the evening to expand our vantage point, our awareness. We include a "Thank you!" to those who recently or once upon a time took up the slack which expands our horizons now. From an attitude of gratitude we become more fully able to live expansively in the truth, our collective truth.

As this week ripples outward from within and around us, let us remember with appreciation those who take up the slack in our day, or stage of life. We honor as well those who have come and gone ... the thinkers, noticers, listeners, gatherers, tool makers, artists, builders, plumbers, inventors, teachers, grandparents ...those who take up slack in the collective lives around them. In advance, we may thank those who will find themselves crossing their unknown sea in ways that grace our spaces and our places with traces of just what the doctor ordered.

And remember to call upon your giraffe medicine!