It’s been years since we’ve written, blogged, about the beads and feels a moment of strangeness to be back in the bead blogging saddle. But in these turbulent times I have found myself looking at the reason why we started the bead movement in the first place, things like taking control of my reactions to events, keeping my mind present, bringing my mind back daily to my intentions for living, acknowledging that we aren’t in control of the bigger picture things but rather the perceived smaller things I can control. And now more than ever that resonates with me and feels pertinent to remember why we started. How easily I can get caught in maelstrom of the world and thereby robbing the day of the beauty and the charm, the joy and what is present. A yoga teacher in a class I took recently kept asking where are your thoughts now, in the future, past or present. And each time she asked the question I was aware that I had been thinking of something I had to do or that I was stuck reliving memories. The teacher talked about keeping yourself present with the breath. Keep myself present with a bead, every morning, reminding myself I am here now. Be here now.
Right now I am in the middle of an international move so my 19,000 beads are actually in transit as they have been since March. The moment I drop hundreds of beads in to represent the days since I last saw my bead jar will be momentous, what did i do with those days? I can’t get them back and I hope that they weren’t all tainted with puzzling over problems I don’t know the answers too, like when will this virus end and when I can start planning and moving onto the next thing in my life. But rather I hope that I can watch these beads be subtracted from the days I have left remaining in my life and adding to the days I have spent, with a sureness that yes these days of uncertainty were spent well, they were spent differently than I had intended them to be spent, but that they weren’t mis-spent. The only difference is the days didn’t adhere to my plans.
Tags: Be Here Now, Mhairi Morrison, The bead movement