slow down.

Lately my heart is beating to the mantra –

“Slow down.  Slow down.”

I’m saying it to myself.

I’m saying it to my husband.

I’m saying it to the sky and to the wind and to the sunshine.

And I’m especially saying it to the five littles who live under our roof and the one not-so-little who lives in another country.

Slow down.

And we’ve been trying.

(We’re still plodding along in our “Just Say No” campaign.  It’s progressing kind of nicely friends.)

I just feel so very aware of the sheer speed at which life moves.

I know that, in so many big and little ways, RIGHT NOW is my favorite.

The way Otto looked tonight as he bounded up the stairs – shirtless but wearing suspenders over his bare bird cage chest.

The way Mosely leans in to me for long hugs and soft smiles.

The way Bergen laughs so hard he sort of hacks and coughs in some barking seal way whenever Kevin reads Patrick McManus stories at night to him.

The way the kids beg for another chapter after every daily reading in our Little House books.

There are just these bits and pieces of my life right now that are actually better than I had ever imagined.

It’s mind boggling, I tell you.

What I am is grateful.

Where I am is here.