You need to go to the park

Living in the city with pets can be a time consuming challenge, unless you live by a park. My dog, Sal, gets to go to the park twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.The park we go to overlooks the Civic Center and downtown. Day or night there are fantastic views and everything seems to be farther away up there. I like to go there and sit down and write in my journal what I hope to do for the day, or what I have done.

When we first moved here, I thought that I would never be able to find the time. I mean who has 20 minutes in the morning to take the dog out? But I feel differently now. Overtime, the walk in the park that Sal always reminds us we need to do about 7 AM and 6 PM has become an integral part of our morning. Slowly walking up the hill as Sal runs with his tennis balls in the cool air is something I always feel like I don't have time for but then realize I don't have time NOT to do it. I scold myself because really, who CAN'T find 20 minutes a day to go for a walk in the park.

I have been thinking about priorities lately, about finding balance in my life. When you run your own business, you take on the roll of everything at some point during the day. I am lucky because I have advisors that help me, but I still end up handling quite a bit and that combined with travel leaves me juggling.

So how do we find balance? I am getting closer to the answer. I just started studying the yoga sutras and the teacher of the class asked a good question. What is important to you? There was a silence as we all thought about it. He asked is it family? Friends? Partner? Yoga? Meditation? Peace? Art? Then he asked the question that resonated with me for a long time....How much time a day do you spend doing things that are important to you? How much time a day do I spend doing things that are important to me? Not enough, definitely not enough. So my day-to-day challenge is to integrate more and more of the things that are important to me and cull out the things that just make my life hectic. Walking in the park with and Salvador is definitely important. I can't wait to do it again this evening.