Five Minutes of Peace!

I'm kind of late to this ballgame, but we've had internet issues. Again, for today's post, I am following the one-word prompt from Kate at Heading Home. 
If you want to join, click that link to her blog. Every Friday is a new word, and the only rules are:  Write for 5 minutes.  Link your post on hers. 
(You have a whole week to get your post up.)
It's pretty cool, and I find a new blog every week.
(Now if only I would make the time to revisit more often during the week.)
  This week's one-word is "Crave".
  Timer starting...

What non-food thing do I crave? I crave peace. True peace in my heart.

I actually started a Mindfulness Challenge recently. "Mindfulness" is one of those ephemeral words that implies a bunch of mental mumbo-jumbo and visualization exercises that a lot of people can't get into. But it's working for me so far.

I set a goal that at the end of this challenge I would have accepted Beijing as home. I have, logically. My brain gets it. But sometimes, on a frustrating day, the fleeting thought of "if we were in the States" passes through my mind unbidden. Or I just miss things and people. I know we aren't moving, but my heart is not at truly peace.

So each day, I meditate on the thought that this is now my home, for at least a minute. And throughout the day, my "mindfulness" is about focus on the moment. What is actually happening around me here and now? How am I responding? How is my husband responding? What can I, literally, do about it?

It has been a great week. Instead of yearning for the future we dream of, or longing for a past that can never be again, I am slowly becoming more present in my actual life, and at those times my heart is truly, peaceful.

Time's Up!