The days when we’re caught up in solving problems, under pressure, in tense interactions, or lost in overthinking can slowly pull us away from ourselves. Often, it’s only when something seemingly trivial happens — like forgetting that you’ve left soup on the stove for three hours — that you realize how far you’ve drifted from yourself.
Today, I don’t want to talk about solutions. I want to talk about a moment of coming back.
It happened yesterday, when, between errands and tasks, I walked through the park. A storm was approaching.
I avoided the paths and took a trail, away from people. The trees had incredible colors — stormy grays, mint greens, deep purples. I imagined that I could paint a mandala using only the shades of that afternoon.
As the wind lifted the dust, I heard the crickets. It was like a sonic shower passing through me. I felt the leaves, listened to the breezes and the thunder, and let a gust of wind from behind cleanse me. The rain only came once I got home. The elevator was waiting on the ground floor.
Everything was… perfect. Not in a sense of control, but in that rare sense of harmony with what is.
Once again, I realized that mindfulness doesn’t always mean sitting on a cushion and breathing.
It can mean letting yourself be carried by nature.
Choosing a quiet path while the world walks the main trail.
Feeling the wind, listening to crickets, touching leaves.
Letting the storm wash over you — instead of avoiding it.
And yes, maybe I’ll paint that mandala one day. Or maybe it will remain only inside me: gray like the clouds, fresh green like a breath, deep purple like silence.
Perhaps it’s worth remembering: you don’t always need to force yourself back to yourself. Sometimes it’s enough to just hear a cricket.
Maybe it’s happened to you too — in a seemingly ordinary moment, a walk, a breeze, a sound — to feel, for an instant, that everything is exactly as it should be.
And maybe you didn’t even notice it at the time.
I leave an open invitation, a warm space, for that memory to find its way back to you. 🌿