#WHOLEHOUR
Have you ever traced back your steps in slow motion, rewinding each act of the day one by one, only to discover in bewilderment that your ‘usual’ day was in fact quite remarkable?
This post is for you.
My wake up call came at 1am, that is, one o’clock in the morning. Our smallest daughter has a cold and her very small nose simply cannot put up with the plethora of coagulated mucus. So, she cries.
I sat by her bed and succumbed to a fast-paced process of browsing images on my phone. I remember mostly pumpkins and autumn leaves. All very pleasant, but unhelpful for the uninvited headache that was comfortably nesting inside my skull.
A few hours later, I was woken up again, this time by the smell of burnt oil and a cacophony of excited voices running down the stairs. My husband had burnt the oil while trying to comfort the baby and make pancakes, and not wake everyone up, and get ready for work.
I did not feel grateful. Just tired. As if to highlight my lack of gratitude, I was welcomed with a frothy cup of coffee when I finally emerged downstairs.
It was only much later, as I stood in the kitchen, this time in complete silence, that something changed. Maybe the sweetness of the leftover lavender honey that I licked off the spoon finally hit me. Or maybe it was that ray of sun which, stranded on my kitchen window, lingered on my face, warming up my eyelids.
We were soon packed up and ready for our World Mental Health Day walk. ‘We’ meant two now: my youngest daughter and I. We stepped into possibly the most beautiful day of autumn, we crushed burgundy leaves, dug our feet in burning hot mud and picked late dandelions, then sat side by side on a bench, closing our eyes under the heavy shine of the sun, and felt quiet, and peaceful, and happy.
#WHOLE HOUR
I did this walk on World Mental Health Day, 10th of October, in order to support #IAMWHOLE’s initiative of taking a whole, uninterrupted hour, just for ourselves.
This year, the #iamwhole project encourage us that for World Mental Health Day, for a whole hour, we take time away and enjoy doing something solely for ourselves and our mental health wellbeing. @Wholeorg are an amazing space which I have written about in the past here. They have recently launched a podcast and are doing simply amazing stuff on mental health awareness campaigning. Check them out!
