0:00 Go on and let your shoulders drop down away from your ears, right where you're sitting.0:10 Feel the floor beneath your feet, steady and holding you up without you even asking it to.0:21 The porch light is still throwing a soft yellow circle onto the steps, and the steam is rising quiet off my coffee cup.0:36 Good morning, baby.0:39 In our last visit, we talked about making a little breathing room for the morning, setting yesterday down on the threshold before you stepped across.0:57 Today, we're going to stay right here in that quiet room we made.1:05 You don't have to carry it all before breakfast.1:11 Take a slow breath in through your nose, filling your chest up like a sail catching the early breeze.1:23 Hold it for just a little heartbeat.1:28 Then let it go, long and easy, out through your mouth.1:35 There isn't any rush in this room.1:39 Breathe in that cool morning air again, right down into your belly.1:47 And sigh it out softly.1:50 Hmm-mm-mm… Your breath knows what to do, honey.1:56 You don't have to manage it, or push it along.2:01 Let it find its own gentle river, coming and going, all on its own time.2:10 Now let's bring your attention down through your body, starting right at the top of your head.2:22 Unclench your jaw, baby.2:25 We hold so much unspoken grit behind our teeth, keeping up appearances, trying to look brave for the world.2:38 Let your tongue soften away from the roof of your mouth.2:45 Feel the weight of your hands resting in your lap.2:51 Notice the warmth in your palms, how heavy and still they can be when they aren't reaching for the next task.3:05 Let that heavy warmth sink down through your chest, past your ribs, softening that tight little knot behind your breastbone.3:20 Mm-hm.3:21 I remember so many Saturday mornings in the choir loft, watching folks clear their throats, trying so hard to sound like brass when their hearts were really made of wood and string.3:43 Sometimes a soprano would choke up on the high note because she was carrying a sick child at home, or an empty pocketbook, or a heartbreak she hadn't told a soul about.4:04 And I would stop the piano, look over my spectacles, and say, sugar, stop trying to sound strong.4:16 Just sing what's true.4:19 And when she let the crack show in her voice, that's when the real beauty came flooding through the rafters.4:32 It was never the polish that healed us; it was the honest sound.4:40 Let your belly go soft now.4:44 Sink a layer deeper into this quiet, underneath all the plans and the worries about what comes next.4:56 We spend so much of our days thinking that being strong means being made of brick and mortar.5:07 We think we can't let anybody see us wobble, or admit that we feel weary, or say out loud that we are afraid.5:21 Mmm-mm.5:22 That isn't strength, baby; that's just armor, and armor gets mighty heavy to wear in the heat of the day.5:35 It takes real COURAGE to open your hand and say, this hurts, or, I don't know the way forward this morning.5:48 That soft place inside you isn't your ruin.5:53 That's the garden gate.5:56 That's where peace slips in when you finally stop fighting yourself.6:05 Rest right here in this stillness.6:09 You are completely safe to be tender right now.6:15 Nothing to prove.6:17 Nothing to defend.6:19 Hmm-mm-mm… Just this breath, meeting you exactly as you are.6:26 Feel the chair beneath you again, solid and true.6:33 Feel the cool air brushing against your cheeks, and hear the little sparrows waking up out on the rail.6:45 When you get up from this quiet place today, keep this small thought tucked close to your heart: Your tenderness is not your weakness, baby; it is the truest grace you have.7:07 Mm-hm.7:07 Sit with that a minute.7:10 Go on, now, and let the day meet you kind.
