Starting Over with Inspiration

I had a brief sojourn in Owen Sound last weekend, helping my mother recuperate from knee surgery. My tasks were simple: minister to her needs for tea and occasional meals, walk my dog, and just basically be there. I accomplished all of these with immense satisfaction, not least because my mother is someone who is almost always enthusiastic about life, regardless of her circumstances. She had firmly requested that her surgeon fix both knees at once so that she could get back out on the Bruce Trail sooner, and could maybe do a full snowshoe hike next winter instead of only the half she did a few months ago.
Caring for my mother was actually a nice break for me. I managed to fit in some work on a challenging web design project and did a couple of conference calls, so it wasn’t officially time off, but it felt like a vacation. The quiet up there gave me lots of space to think about new projects and consider problems from a comfortable distance.
Most of all, it was a gift of balance, a centering space where I could be helpful. I look for ways to “pay it forward” but I don’t often get a chance to “pay it back” even in a very small way. Thanks, Mom!