Waking Up

I have been sleeping for a while. For years I have slowly allowed the stresses of life to overwhelm me and sedate a piece of my soul that I absolutely adore. I became so busy making a living that I forgot to live. REALLY live.

Since I have slipped into my slumber, the same sun has always risen each morning, but I haven't taken the time to appreciate and revel in its blazing and glorious beauty. The same winds have blown through my backyard trees, but I have been temporarily deafened to the way they whisper through the leaves as if revealing some precious secret that only the sincerest and simplest souls can hope to understand. The same enchanting world has surrounded me, but I have not allowed my heart to feel its calming and enlivening presence. Life has continued on, as beautiful as it ever was, but I haven't even noticed it. I have been sleeping.

But yesterday, something awakened in me. Perhaps it was the change in the weather and the crisp, pure winds that tousled my hair as I baby-stepped down a pebble-littered sidewalk with my beautiful daughter. Maybe it was the way her eyes lit up when several birds dive-bombed each other in free-spirited play before lighting on the branches of a gently swaying tree. It could have been the way the thunder clouds billowed in absolute power and enveloped the mountains that stand like sentinels over my modest home, or the scent of the falling rain as it washed away the earth's regrets and left it laying naked and pure like a newborn baby - the way my soul felt at that moment. 

I can't put my finger on it exactly, but something has slipped into my heart, pulled back the covers of indifference from my mind, and awakened a beautiful spark of who I once was. I played with my daughter without inhibitions yesterday, and I looked at my husband through grateful eyes and with renewed love. I have a long way to go still, but I am waking up. And life is beautiful.