{"id":199,"date":"2010-06-04T11:01:40","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T11:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katrinakenison.com\/2010\/06\/04\/present-moment\/"},"modified":"2010-06-04T11:01:40","modified_gmt":"2010-06-04T11:01:40","slug":"present-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/present-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Present Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/span>They are home at last, both sons.\u00a0 And I\u2019m perched here at the kitchen table, for about two brief minutes before the potatoes boil (three men in the house–grilled steaks and mashed potatoes for dinner).\u00a0 All afternoon, I thought there would be an hour or so to sit down and write my weekly blog post, but I\u2019d forgotten how quickly a day flies by when there is no time to gaze out the window, daydreaming sentences.\u00a0 I can tell already that the rhythms are going to be different around here this summer; it may take me a while to adjust.\u00a0 My yoga mat sits untouched on the floor between the living room and the kitchen.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t answered a single email, or meditated, or gotten back to the guy who wants to schedule a reading, or glanced at the front page of The New York Times.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve made several rounds of breakfast, taken a run with Henry, done a huge load of grocery shopping, washed lots of sheets and soggy towels, heard detailed synopses of the latest episodes of \u201cThe Office,\u201d bought two quarts of freshly picked strawberries at the farmer\u2019s market, cut peonies and irises from the garden, set the porch table, cooked a welcome-home feast for Jack.\u00a0 I can’t quite believe that it’s dinner time already, that I feel this tired, and that I never got any “real” work done today, let alone a downward dog or a long deep breath. \u00a0And I feel renewed admiration for every woman who manages a busy household, and still finds time to write and read and think.\u00a0 For every woman who works outside the home, and manages to take care of the people in<\/em> the home as well.\u00a0 For all the women who juggle way more than I do — raising children and earning a living and tending to those in need — and who nevertheless also honor their commitments to themselves and their inner lives.<\/p>\n

The soul work we do is so subtle, so easily postponed to another day, so low, sometimes, on the list of priorities.\u00a0 There is always so much that must<\/em> be done, that we tend to let go of those things that feel like self-indulgent extras.\u00a0 It seems impossible, at times, to find room in our busy, demanding lives to allow for silence and solitude and regeneration.\u00a0 Today, there\u2019s been more hustle and bustle and conversation going on in these rooms than we\u2019ve seen in months.\u00a0 There are piles everywhere.\u00a0 Plans being made, tennis rackets and shoes proliferating, dirty glasses filling the sink.\u00a0 I\u2019m sort of amazed at how much sheer space they take up, these grown boys of mine.<\/p>\n

And yet, tonight feels like a party. My three favorite people in the world are right here:\u00a0 husband, two sons.\u00a0 At least I have the presence of mind to pay attention, to be grateful, to remember that this really is IT:\u00a0 the life I have, the best life there is, the present moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They are home at last, both sons.\u00a0 And I\u2019m perched here at the kitchen table, for about two brief minutes before the potatoes boil (three men in the house–grilled steaks and mashed potatoes for dinner).\u00a0 All afternoon, I thought there would be an hour or so to sit down and write my weekly blog post, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[24,30,40,8,9,10,14],"tags":[198,345,387,389],"class_list":{"0":"post-199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-connection","8":"category-gratitude","9":"category-mindfulness","10":"category-parenting","11":"category-parenting-boys-parenting","12":"category-parenting-teens","13":"category-soul-work","14":"tag-gratitude-2","15":"tag-present-moment","16":"tag-sons","17":"tag-soul-work-2","18":"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\/199","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=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/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=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}