You may be asking yourself, “Exactly what are the spaces in between?” Well, to me, they are the moments of presentness in between our day-to-day life.

My husband recently had shoulder surgery, and for anyone that knows someone who has had surgery, or have experienced it yourself, you know that recovery time is… a time of patience. You are literally forced to slow down, allowing your body to heal, and your mind, well at times, it doesn’t want to participate. Instead, it thinks you should doing this and that, recover quicker, eat more comfort foods, etc.

While my husband has been dealing with slowing down, I have been doing my best to take care of him, without being overbearing. Then of course, there is taking care of our daugher (getting her to all the places she needs to be), the house, the cooking, the finances, running my design business, teaching T’ai Chi and Qigong, and of course, my personal practice.

After dropping off our daughter at Kung Fu class last Saturday, I went to a local park to slow down, to enjoy a sitting meditation and practice T’ai Chi. When I arrived the park was extremely crowded, and lots of people wearing pink. There had obviously been a Breast Cancer Awareness Event, and people were still lingering around.

I walked away from the crowd and found a wonderful place to sit under a small tree, where I could look up into the sky and see the massive trees that surround the park. Immediately, I felt peace with everything that was going on in my life, I knew we were all going to be okay. I sat and practiced, and randomly leaves would fall to the ground. I felt as if when a leaf fell, I was letting go of different attachments and expectations. I began to feel lighter, I could feel the wind, I could feel my breath, and the sun shining down on my body. It was at this time, I truly felt I was embracing the spaces in between.

I continued with some moving meditation, I began to feel more, and think less. (Something our Sifu is always teaching us.) And, for a moment in time, it was as if the world had stopped to embrace me. It’s hard to explain exactly what I felt, but I will always remember that time at the park, with a huge amount of gratitude just me, the trees and the leaves falling down.

When was the last time you embraced the spaces in between? I would love to hear about it, please leave a comment below.