"Heart and Soul"

A classic of my childhood, of the time when everyone who was vaguely cool could play 'Heart and Soul' as a duet on the piano: one person doing the melody, and the other doing the basic accompanyment. When I taught this to my daughter this past year it felt like a milestone. Now, it's fun to actually learn the words--who knew there were words?!

I'm back from my lovely weekend away, and tired, of course. I've also had to type in the last two days's posts before doing this one. It always takes me a while to relax when I'm away on my own, the second night of sleep was better and longer than the first, and I know from doing ten day dance meditation retreats that it would have taken me about five days to really feel rested. It's something to have the two days. And it's good to be back with my husband and daughter, though I had to laugh, inside, at how I hit the ground running: putting away everything, picking up the household mess, throwing in a load of laundry, and getting my daughter to bed, a whirlwind of activity in my first ninety minutes at home--and then I ate dinner, at nine o'clock.

Again, I know that I crave the activity, but it reinforces the idea that to truly relax, being elsewhere is extremely helpful. On the flip side, knowing that I am capable of relaxing elsewhere--sitting in a chair for an hour Saturday morning, doing nothing more than watching a lazy snow fall outside--I could do it here, as well. It is possible, freely acknowledging that it'd be tons trickier to balance and keep the relaxation focus while on the home front. It's a good thing that I love a challenge.