Today my mind is in a thousand different places. It’s spinning around in 160 mile winds in Texas. It’s surging on the shores in Louisiana. It’s on fire in the California mountains. It’s lying in a hospital in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It’s in a COVID ward in Arizona. It’s standing in line at the food bank 3 miles away. It’s in an empty storefront on our Main Street.

If I don’t grab hold of it and somehow reign it in, it will fly off, unmasked, to all of the sad and desperate situations around the globe. It will end up distended, dehydrated, and covered in flies in the middle of some desolate dystopian desert.

But my body is here. It’s right here. I’m sitting here. I can feel my feet on the ground. I can feel my legs and back against the chair, my fingers typing, my eyes seeing, my ears hearing. My body is right here, and it needs to pull my mind back. I need my mind back.

I need to focus. It’s so easy to get lost, in the sadness, the confusion, the frustration, the anger. It’s so easy to feel helpless. And lately, it’s so easy to feel hopeless.

Yesterday I was sitting, at a social distance, with a group of very strong, but also very empathetic, women that I know. We were speaking about the world, as we do, and the conversation started to get heavy, as it does. With the weight of the world on our shoulders, there was a pause. And one of the women said some words like ‘It’s too much. The whole world is too much. We just have to concentrate on our own little corner of the world.’

I can’t look at the whole world. Not right now. Not today. It’s too overwhelming. I can only look at my own little corner of the world, and do what I can to make it better right here, and hope that the good will spread. But I can’t improve my corner of the world world with a disconnected mind and body. They need to be in synch if I want to get anything done.

Breath. Breath is the key. Slow breath, conscious breath, mindful, deep, deliberate breath. That is the connector. That’s how I will bring my mind back.

Inhale slowly, count to 4. Exhale slowly count to 4.

Inhale count to 5. Exhale count to 5.

Inhale for 5. Exhale for 6.

Inhale, 5. Exhale, 7.

Inhale, 5. Exhale, 8. Close your eyes. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat…

Ahhh. There it is.

The earworm by the Pixies. Where is my mind?