"Soul" on Monday: back to work with our real self?? What an idea!

Sometimes we "have" to "go to work" and we
"don't want" to go to work.

We don't have to commute, we don't want to get up earlier than we do on Sundays,
we don't want to "put up" with whatever we have to "put up" with at work.

We have to "do things" in a way that creates or produces or helps something along.

Sometimes we are lucky and get to build or paint or sculpt or garden,
and we can see the fruits of our labors at the end of the day.

And still we might feel "lazy"
or not sure if those fruits are really going to happen.

Often, money rears its sometimes strange and confusing head
in the work game and we either "don't have enough," or aren't being
paid what we are "worth," or just plain don't have the clientele we want,
or a job.

So on Monday we've got to get to work getting work.

And all that seems leagues away from a nice Sunday walk in a park,
following our breathing,
just BEING,
sitting down,
no rushing,
meditating,
watching our thoughts, feeling our bodies in the present,
all that good, Be Here Now relaxation and mindfulness stuff.

Great.
And we've got to go drive the cab, or dig up the dirt, or get on the phone and or computer,
we've got to hustle work, or write the five pages we've set out to write, or illustrate the book
we've said we'll illustrate.

And soul
and being
where are they?

Do they need to take a vacation until next weekend, next retreat, next vacation,
the glass of wine at the end of the day?

Maybe.
Maybe not.

How about a one minute vacation right now?
Close your eyes. Find your feet on the floor, and sit more or less upright,
follow your breathing
and let your spine round and arch ever so slightly as part
of your
"mini-meditation."

Good.
And how did that feel?
And can you keep some of that round and arching and following your breathing
and being aware of yourself, now, as you sit in your chair, now, and read the rest
of this essay?

Can you allow the present to infuse and underlie all that you do in your "Work" today?

This sounds (and is) hard,
but mindfulness as you work
is the key to freedom in all of your life,
not just when you finally get to Hawaii
or Paris
or Disneyland.

And if you are a mother, or the home parent with the children,
that work is both an incentive to being present,
since children already are,
and a great gift to yourself and your children when you are present.

Children want someone who is there, who is really, who can give them real attention.
You don't have to give every second attention to your kids,
though there will certainly be times when that is one of life's great treats,
but when you do give attention,
really give it.

This will feed you and your children
for the rest of their lives.

Good.