{"id":1899,"date":"2013-06-30T18:11:02","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T22:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katrinakenison.com\/?p=1899"},"modified":"2013-06-30T18:11:02","modified_gmt":"2013-06-30T22:11:02","slug":"summer-afternoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/summer-afternoon\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer afternoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"June S<\/span>ummer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Henry James<\/em><\/p>\n

I took a long walk yesterday, listening on my headphones to poet David Whyte talking about \u201cWhat to Remember When Waking.\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I confess: \u00a0I was two miles down the road and completely under the spell of \u00a0Whyte’s romantic English accent before it even occurred to me that he is not referring to waking up literally<\/em>, as in what to remember as you roll out of bed in the morning, but rather to waking up in a spiritual sense.\u00a0 In other words, waking up to your life.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, in the heat of the day, trudging back up the hill toward home and dripping with sweat, I got it.<\/p>\n

Each day offers me a choice.\u00a0 I can keep my head down, my heart locked up, my soul tethered to my to-do list, my feet on the same old well-worn path.\u00a0 Or, I can wake up.\u00a0 I can pay attention to the subtle currents of my life, and allow them to carry me in a new direction.\u00a0 I can feel my feelings, rather than avoid them.\u00a0 I can be fully present, rather than half here.\u00a0 I can wake up to the challenges of the journey, the conversation I don\u2019t want to have, my fears about where I\u2019m headed, the truth of who I am, the gifts and and losses of my life as it is.<\/p>\n

Today is as good a day as any other to wake up.\u00a0 It is a summer afternoon. Why not wallow like a hedonist in the fullness of the \u00a0present moment? \u00a0\u00a0Succumb to the fleeting beauty of June. Allow your tender heart to open, both to grief for all that\u2019s over and gladness for what remains.\u00a0 Eat strawberries.\u00a0 Watch a robin splash in the birdbath. Blow bubbles with your kids. Go for a swim, or a bike ride, or a walk. Watch the clouds drift past. Pick daisies for your table.\u00a0 Snap some peas.\u00a0 Hang your damp sheets on the line. Sit in a lawn chair.\u00a0 Read a book.\u00a0 Close your eyes.\u00a0 Take a nap.\u00a0 Wake up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Henry James I took a long walk yesterday, listening on my headphones to poet David Whyte talking about \u201cWhat to Remember When Waking.\u201d I confess: \u00a0I was two miles down the road […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,14,15],"tags":[144,211,295,463],"class_list":{"0":"post-1899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mindfulness","8":"category-soul-work","9":"category-writing-and-reading","10":"tag-david-whyte","11":"tag-henry-james","12":"tag-mindfulness-2","13":"tag-waking-up","14":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/600x600.png?fit=600%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}