Hello Blendfriends, and welcome to the first Saturday of May. Around here it is sunny and warm, and I am quite ready to go play in my community garden. We're just getting the place open, and I need to go do some preparation. It promises to be strong physical work, as I need to turn the soil. As I spoke to another gardener yesterday, I learned that if I had turned it last fall, that would have deterred certain pests from laying their eggs in my plot. Ah, well, live and learn! I think a good thorough turning might still help, so I'll be doing functional fitness today. Just need to make sure I get in a good total-body warmup, or even a light workout, ahead of time.

Another thing coming up soon is my grocery shopping. I just plain skipped it last week, and now we've eaten up the fruit and veg. So, I expect I'll be a busy little bee today! Now, usually when I start writing about the day, something comes to mind that could be a thought or a quote to share, but apparently this morning I'm just buzzing along without much mindfulness. Oops. So I took a out moment to find a quote I could share with you all, and happened on this little story told by Rob Breszny :

"When Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh was invited to the San Francisco Zen Center, the students asked him what they could do to improve their practice. He had entered a monastery at age sixteen, was an ordained monk, and had endured the horrors of the war in Vietnam. I imagine they expected some rigorous prescription for deepening their spiritual life.

"Thich Nhat Han's response: 'You guys get up too early for one thing; you should get up a little later. And your practice is too grim. I have just two instructions for you. One is to breathe, and one is to smile.'"

So today, remember to breathe, remember to smile, and be present in the moment. Have a wonderful day!