It’s nice to know that at 5:30 in July you can wake up to light.  That’s good, right? It’s a bit gray but cars are speeding by and the news is cranking.  Yes, I want to be sleeping but my eyes are burning and my head is filled with ideas shooting back and forth.

So it’s Sunday morning and I am not anxious about Monday, in fact I’m feeling quite peaceful about our SI.  It would be good if I could just leave well enough alone, but I am obsessed with the why.  Why am I so relaxed and just present?

Yes, I took off a few summers to do other things, deal with the loss of my mom last summer, attend a wedding in Israel.  At this very day I was on my way home from Maya’s wedding after a very exhausting two weeks.  It was good I had the time to breathe.

So after two years away, I returned with a leadership team and a new cohort and a good friend to co-facilitate the Institute.  The team had been at it without me and I wondered how we would come together.  Christine would be new to the leadership experience and I wondered how all the pieces would fit together, fit with me.

You know, it all fits and I am present. We had a great end to our first week.  Lots of structured writing time, a lovely pot luck lunch, some shared planning for our second week  and I ride home back to Tuvia for a long weekend to chill.

Back to the gym, back to my guitar, back to a movie, back to the grill and yes, I am excited that tomorrow morning I’ll be back on the Thruway at 6:45 am racing back to SUNY, hoping that I continue to feel relaxed.