One Little Step At A Time

Hello dear ones,

I hope you and your family are well and slowly adjusting to a new way of living. I think of everyone often as I’m on my own here in my humble home in Vermont. It’s so nice to be in touch through these journal posts!

I’m welcoming in the (slightly) warmer days of Spring, along with celebrations of Beltane or May Day last Friday, Cinco de Mayo today, and Mother’s Day this Sunday. All blessings!

Every day I get outside and go down to visit my little brook that runs through this land–from the slopes of Woodbury Mountain, down through the fields, crossing into the woods I steward, becoming what is named the Elmore Branch, then flowing into the Lamoille River, then flowing into Lake Champlain.

It gives me great pleasure, comfort and a sense of the sacred to sit by the water. Of course these benefits are immeasurable, quite literally…they are unquantifiable, and vastly healing and helpful. In a world that commodifies everything, I find much solace in being outside that conventional box, and knowing what is of value by how I feel in my heart.

The water brings me a sense of timelessness, of constancy, of change, of health and wealth, of peace. It reminds me, as it traverses such long distances, that progress is made stone by stone, river rock by river rock, mountain into field, one little step at a time.

One little step at a time has become my mantra. When I feel overwhelmed by the new changes in my life and livelihood, when I just cannot get started and am still in my pajamas at 1pm, I remember “one little step at a time”….whether that is starting my day, weeding an overgrown patch of garden, getting outside for a walk, or making phone calls when I’m such an introvert. 

Kaizen, a method of tiny little steps which, one after another, result in big change, is how I have been approaching my self-care and my life. 

Start by picking the lowest hanging fruit.

For example, yesterday I knew I needed to call my excavator friend and I had been putting off doing that, dreading knowing that the cost of repairing my washed out driveway (remember the Halloween Storm of 2019??) would be big.

So my Kaizen move was just to open my old-fashioned address book to his name and leave it on my kitchen table overnight. In the morning, the next step flowed easily, I just picked up the phone and dialed the numbers. Turns out he was in the neighborhood, and we set a time to meet. The phone call I procrastinated on for so long, became an easy when I set myself up with a tiny, un-intimidating step.

I’ve been breaking everything down into tiny Kaizen moves. Like just walking out and observing the garden bed, and that’s all for that day.

Then the next day finding my tools and laying them out, and that’s all.

Then the next day, spending 5 minutes taking the tools out to the garden and weeding a tiny patch….I can now report that the irises in the entire patch are now choke-free from grass!

Kaizen is how I have been “beginning” with most everything, when the fears of the unknown added to the many other emotions of these times, seem to paralyze or disorient me.

 Kaizen slows my world down. Tiny moves take the pressure off. And in this time of pandemic and having lots of time to contemplate, living a non-hurried life, a non-pressured life is how I want to live. I’m getting things done. I’m lowering my stress level dramatically. I’m sleeping a lot better.

In the coming days, try taking the tiniest step that you can, then rest and see where it takes you, in mind, body, spirit. Notice.

I have found, that just like a little stream going over each little rock, that life just flows more naturally when I go with the next tiny best step….which sometimes ends up with big results, as in Lake Champlain. Certain results are not promised–nothing in life ever is–but the journey along the way is more enjoyable.

It’s actually how I write these journal posts each week. If I faced the whole project at once, I would be stuck. Instead, I muse about a subject early in the morning when I journal. Later, I write the title, and let that sink in. Then after awhile, I pick a beautiful image. And then the words just flow. 

Like Anna says in the movie “Frozen II”, which I watched and thoroughly enjoyed the other night (I wanted to know who my two granddaughters were talking about!),  “Take the next best step….” when she was confronted with immense grief and big unknown territory. Thank you Anna!