SABBATH

Gary came and mowed the field around the house Friday. Saturday, he raked hay into windrows, and by evening he was rolling bales.

A newly mown and baled hayfield looks so neat and tidy. And it smells delicious, like freshly baked bread.

A dear friend gave me a porch swing as a house-warming gift when my family first moved into this house-in-the-hayfield. For almost 25 years, I have sat and swayed in this swing, watching the hay grow, the seasons change, the bustle of traffic on the highway and the ebb and flow of vehicles down the long gravel driveway that we share with the house next door.

This porch has witnessed a lot of laughter, music, tears, long conversations lasting deep into the night. It has absorbed two-and-a-half decades of popsicle drips, beer-bottle sweat, and dog slobber. It has hosted family dinners, church gatherings, weddings, graduation parties, and after-funeral pot-lucks.

Pheobes come back every year to nest atop the posts lining the porch. This morning as I sit here on the swing and write, mama bird eyes me warily while she warms her second clutch of eggs. This evening, a clever brown toad will hop up the front steps to feast on insects drawn to the light streaming from the kitchen windows, while a flat green tree frog will climb right up the windows themselves.

As I sit here and sway, sipping tea and listening to the birds and enjoying the morning breeze, it is strange and somehow deeply calming to think that I have traveled almost 25 laps around the sun while sitting in this very same spot.

* * * * *

In healthcare, we preach a lot - and are preached to a lot - about good nutrition, regular exercise, sleep hygiene, stress management. In nursing school, we were exhorted to be "good examples" of healthy lifestyle choices for our patients.

Yeah, right.

In January, determined to better in my pursuit of healthy lifestyle choices, I resolved to take at least a 15-minute break every workday to mentally and physically step away from work - maybe walk one lap around a local park, or just pull off the road, roll down the car windows, and admire the beauty of a lake - in an attempt to better mange job-related stress. Should be easy, right? Six months later, I can count on one hand the number of times I actually took that break.

I am doing better about packing healthy lunches and making fewer corn-dog-&-tots runs to Sonic, but I eat that healthy lunch on the fly, racing from one patient's home to the next. I am intentional about drinking more water, but I still drink way too much caffeine.

I actually like to exercise - and I absolutely love yoga - so you'd think regular exercise would be a fairly easy habit to maintain. But the yoga mat and gym clothes camped out in the back seat of my work vehicle haven't been touched in a month: they are held hostage by long days and never-ending demands.

BUT TODAY...

Today, I have a couple of hours of rest from the stress of work (provided the on-call alarm on my phone doesn't shriek) and from the demands of my household (only two more loads of laundry to finish and one bed that needs clean sheets).

Today, I am swaying in the porch swing (Thank you, Katherine!), bathed by a cool fresh breeze, listening to the sweet, sweet music of birdsong, inhaling deeply the smell of freshly baked bread.

* * * * *

Thank you, thank you, thank you for asking, Lahrue - your checking in means so much. It's been a rough several weeks, but I am fighting to come up for air.