Mindful

No one stays off the grid for very long without embracing mindfulness in a big way.Motherhood comes with its own mindfulness.  Are lunches made? Is homework done? Are there enough pop tarts for the morning? Was that scream serious or silly?But the questions and the questioning don't end when the kids go to bed.It's 9:20 PM. Thing 2 is finally snoring, and I'm trying to retune in my schedule so there is more time to work tonight after work, homework, dishes, laundry, dinners, and that. Winter is coming, albeit  hesitantly, and I am trying to find a better time of day to wash my hair so I can find more wick at one end of my candle.It should be a simple thing. Sadly, however, the hairdryer is the homemade energy grid's natural enemy, and cold mornings make wet hair not just bad style such a bad idea.  So I make a plan to move a morning ritual to the evening.I head toward the bathroom and turn on the faucet, looking forward to a wood-fired scalding. I shiver for a few minutes as I wait for the hot water to come in, but it doesn't.  As goosebumps form, I am suddenly mindful of the dishwasher I ran earlier, but the wood stove I let sit cold on this cloudy day because the temperature outside failed to penetrate our sheltered walls. I think of the solar hot water heater that probably sat quiet under the cloud cover, and I think of the gallons hot water I wasted during an unusually long hot shower the night before.  And I am suddenly mindful of the reality that not thinking about the impact of my actions (and inaction) ahead of time is going to make for a very cold shower tonight.