A long day, a warm bath and some love...

A package came in the mail yesterday.  It was the kind of package that surprises you when you reach in your mailbox to fish out all the junk mail, bills, notices and other stuff that readily appears.  It was wrapped in a bubble mailer with a large black lotus that had been hand drawn in black sharpie marker on the back side.  Addressed to me and from a friend I was excited to have received such a treasure and hurried inside to relieve myself of my morning's bags so that I could open it.
Inside was a sweet little handmade card, a seashell with a hand written message and some sensuous smelling homemade bath salts in "Tangerine Dream" and "Eucalyptus".   The salts were a reminder that a few days ago when discussing my nagging sciatic pain with another friend she had advised me to slooooow down.  She informed me that my sciatica was my body's way of telling me that I have taken on entirely too much and that if I do not slow down, my body will do it for me.
These two events are no surprise to me now that I have reflected on New Year's Eve when I proclaimed that 2012 was a year of intention and that I was going to be more mindful of my actions, my heart, my needs and my life as a whole.  Actually they were confirmation that I was to pay closer attention to my everyday activities and thoughts.  So tonight, after a six hour class on How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education and shopping for the supplies needed to bake my daughter's wedding cake next weekend, I picked out a set of dishes from a potter friend (which I have been wanting for a very very long time), went to the local eatery with my son for some supper and enjoyable conversation and then I came home and drew a warm bath complete with candles and quiet and I poured in half a bag of my new bath salts.