Unwinding the yo-yo

The words, "slow down," have come to me often these past few days.  I feel like I am always rushing my boys to or from somewhere.  Even if we are on a walk, we have a destination to get to (or exercise that could be received as a bi-product).

Come on, come on!
Let's go!
1-2-3...!
Follow me!

Push, prod, wrangle, even drag.  This is what my days have feel like as I try to move 2 lively boys around this planet. But again the words, "slow down," convicted me today multiple times.

And so, we went to the Rivanna River, which just happens to be behind our house.

Beautiful, isn't it? The boys L.O.V.E. it here. There are lots of rocks and the water is very shallow and clear.  We put our suits on and waded in the warm water, skipped rocks, and looked for frogs. Literally, as I was out there looking around at this gorgeous creation that is just steps from where I live, I felt something unraveling inside of me.  With each breath I took, the coil that was tightly wound up within me began to unwind. It was sheer joy, pure abandon. There was no place we needed to be. No schedule to keep.  There was nothing that we needed to do, except to be in the moment.  It was heaven.  I couldn't stop smiling.

It made me think of a yo-yo...life is all about schedules and places to go, things to do.  Life gets all wrapped up and wound around the planners and meetings and play dates (as well as the emotional windings of the 'shoulds' & 'oughts.') I mean really, that is a part of life and no matter of yogi training will get you away from that.  But you can't really utilize the yo-yo unless you release the string. Until you let it go, the toy really isn't much fun.

And so it is with me.  I need to unwind the yo-yo every now and then. Life is too short to just let it rush by.*

[*Afterward:  Our zen state here lasted all of 10 minutes before someone told me that they had to go to poop. Lovely.  Great timing, right?  I guess the setting helped someone else (ahem) "unwind" too.]