I took out the trash today.
I filled my daughters’ water bottles. I made one lunch. I started the dishwasher. I had my one cup of coffee. My morning routine is predictable. There are activities I do every morning, like spend a few minutes in meditation. Other activities happen as needed, like making lunches for my daughters.
Today, I took out the trash.
Let me back up to the start of the day. My alarm went off at 4:50. Groggy, I put my feet on the floor. I was already dreading the day. The health department set their COVID dial to Orange. The school routine would be amped up. Cleaning every period. More temperature checks. No visitors to the school. Let alone, the daily battle of wearing a mask. That’s all I will say about that situation.
A bad mood was brewing before I even started my coffee maker.
And it just got worse. Especially, when I had to fight the trash container to get the bag out. We have a cylinder trash can that creates a vacuum when the trash bag is too full. Fun times.
I wake my daughters at 5:55. Get them breakfast. We are usually ready to head to school at 6:30. This morning, we were actually a few minutes ahead of schedule. My mood was darkening, that’s when I took out the trash.
The clip above is from the movie Peaceful Warrior, which is based on the book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior.
I waited for the garage door to open so that I could put my bags in the truck of the minivan. After setting the bags in, I stepped out on to our driveway and took in the stars. I heard a side door open so I turned to see my second daughter waiting for the door to stop moving. I asked her to come see the stars, especially the constellation, Orion.
There we stood, father and daughter under a morning sky that was filled with wonder. I pointed out Mars and how it had a reddish shine. We found Venus, too. We circled looking at the different constellations. We heard the rest of the family getting situated into the van, but we stood there a few more seconds.
“Pretty cool, huh?” I said.
“Yeah, the stars are beautiful,” she said.
We smiled at each other, then got into the van to start the day.
My daughter helped me take out the trash today.
It is all Connected 
It’s all about stopping to smell the roses! Enjoyed this a lot!
Thank you!
Great post. We definitely have a connection. I was searching for another site and yours came up. I also look at the stars and planets early in the morning. Recently I posted my podcast from a post I wrote in May about garbage day. How to get rid of our negative thoughts by tossing them into the can and rolling it out to the street.
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Your comment about looking at the stars reminded me how much we (as people) are alike. Yet, we don’t always talk about or share those moments, like stargazing. I’ll checkout your podcast (already have the tab opened).
Very true.
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