the color of its countries

It's mid-morning and I'm snuggled in bed enjoying one of the biggest advantages of my new job: I almost never have to rush in the morning anymore. Today I'm not due in until 3:00, so I'm planning on dedicating the next hour or two to snuggling and meditation on contentment. Circadian rituals of this sort -- morning snuggling, bedtime with stories, and mealtimes made sacred, which may or may not properly fall under the heading "Circadian" -- have taken center stage lately. My job is secure, undemanding, and pleasant, if a little boring at times. And I suppose such enthusiastic appreciation of the requiring-little-thought aspect sounds unambitious of me, but because I'm very definitely planning on leaving China at the end of the summer, I don't worry that I'm atrophying.

The more important discovery is that it feels really, really good to make these small things important, and that their positive impact on my emotional well-being is not to be underestimated. I'm making mental note of that. I'm also noting how important it feels to dedicate a certain amount of time each day to make a loved one (or more than one of them, if tending to friends via internet counts) feel loved, trusting that they want to do the same for you. That is something that had been slipping out of my life and getting subordinated to other stuff -- important stuff, I guess, but stuff that didn't make me feel centered to nearly same extent. I'm challenging myself not to forget this in the upheaval that's sure to unfold over the next six months.