Mindful Monday- Grateful To Say Yes

“i imagine that yes is the only living thing.” 

E.E. Cummings

Yesterday I said yes four times and I am so grateful. I could have "no, it won't work", "no, I don't have time", or "not now". But, I said yes. The first yes went to The Spirit. While teaching my 6-7 year olds in church, I felt prompted to invite my students to search the four gospels in the New Testament. We have been working on finding references together. I allow them to put removable highlighter tape on our weekly scripture. Now the library copies have purple highlights on many pages. When I heard the prompting I put it away as impractical and without purpose. But I said yes and let them look. Each child found a highlighted page and they were all different. Having context for these verses made all the difference. We had a good conversation because they remembered the stories from previous lessons. YES.

My granddaughter was hanging on my arm during church sharing time. "Can I go home with you today?" I see her many times during the week and frankly after church I'm tired. But, I said yes. When we arrived home my other son was there with his daughter and the girl cousins had some alone time without their siblings. YES.

   
Later, my husband asked politely if I could cut his hair. It was the sabbath and I was tired. But, I said yes. A fifteen minute job made such a difference to him and it was easy for me. He had waited many weeks. YES.

   While my older daughter is home for a few months we occasionally do Evening Lines. The idea for Evening Lines came from a book by Regina Sirois called "On Little Wings". The aunt in the book invited her niece to visit. Every evening during her visit a teenage boy in the neighborhood came by to talk. She joined them and learned about Evening Lines.

“I wanted him to see the difference between what he read and what he thought so I gave him a daily assignment to find his favorite words and read them to me. It evolved into our nightly readings.

There are no rules. We each pick a line or passage out of something we read that day – be it cereal box or Shakespeare – and recite it to each other. Nothing long. Sometimes three words. Sometimes a paragraph.”

   As my husband came into the living room later, he told us he was ready for Evening Lines. Right now? But, I said yes. Our Evening Lines were so different. One was a quote from "The Brothers Karamazov" by Dostoyevsky, another from a book about our economy, and the third from a talk by Sheri Dew. Unrelated, disconnected, but fertile fodder for discussion. YES.

While learning to say "no" is important, saying "yes" can lighten and brighten your day. I am grateful for my state of mind and for allowing "yes"

November is a month for paying attention to my level of gratitude. It is part of my year long exploration of mindfulness. You can read more about my Year of Mindfulness here.