NaBloPoMo - what?

For the past several years, I have resisted the peer pressure.

You can do it! They said.

Nooooo! I don't want to! I responded.

This year, I could resist no more. I'm signed up for National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo, as it's affectionately called by BlogHer. 

After several months of inconsistent blogging, I'm committing to 30 days of posting every day to this site. It may be very short some days. Others, it may be long. I'm going to give it a shot - I have had all of these ideas and topics swirling around in my head, and I needed this impetus to record them.

(BTW, stay tuned as I transition twocannoli.com to kristinvshaw.com - I'm teaching myself the Squarespace platform and it's taking me longer than I anticipated...)

The first is a little bit of a cheat - I want to share with you this post by David Gelles at the New York Times, called How to be Mindful of Fall. I have been slacking on my attendance, but there is a new facility here in Austin called Meditation Bar where I have learned how to harness and manage my general anxiety, and I took my 7-year-old son to a couple of shorter classes this fall. It's no exaggeration to say that it has changed my life for the better.  

In any case, fall is my favorite season of the whole year. I love the changing colors, the cooler temperatures, and the feeling of the holidays down the road. Fall is also my dad's birthday, my mom's birthday, and my sister's birthday, all in a row. And my anniversary; I picked October for our wedding because it's my favorite month. (Ten years on October 27!)

“Fall is a feast for the physical senses, the perfect opportunity to step out of our thoughts and into the body, connecting with the world around us.” — Andy Puddicombe, co-founder of the meditation app Headspace.

Enjoy this short meditation.

Step outside on a fall day.

Notice the quality of the light.

Feel the air against your skin, cooler than it was just a few weeks ago.

Observe the sunlight filtering through the trees.

Notice the play of the shadows.

Listen to the sounds of rustling leaves.

Inhale the smell of an autumn day.

- David Gelles, for the NYT