Fifteen Minutes in the Morning

After my coffee and oatmeal this Sunday morning, I sat down at the desk in my home office and closed my eyes. When I opened them it was 13 minutes later. 

This meditation exercise was prompted by a New York Times article I read just before breakfast: Kobe Bryant used to meditate for at least 15 minutes every day. I tried it for a week. 

“It sets me up for the rest of the day,” Bryant said. “It’s like having an anchor. If I don’t do it, I feel like I’m constantly chasing the day as opposed to being able to be controlled and dictate the day. … I have a calmness about whatever comes my way. And a poise.”

Bryant just sat in silence and observed his thoughts. And that’s what I did. The thing that overwhelmingly occupied my mind was my connections, my relationships. The depth of them, the appreciation of them, and the strong desire to go on growing those relationships. 

I thought about community. About how it was fractured at different times in my life when I moved or when I closed the chapter on certain areas of my life as I prepared for the next. More recently that included stepping down from a senior leadership role in nonprofit and the unusual loneliness and unsureness of starting a solo consultancy. But also about the new spheres of community I’m building. Frequenting a progressive church that I learned about over coffee with a consultant whom I’ve long deeply admired and who mentioned his wife is one of the pastors there, and where I immediately felt a sense of belonging. About my two brothers, two nieces, and nephew - a close-knit crew of 6 as you’ll ever find. About being a more active alumni and going back to university to pursue more learning and to deepen my connections and community there. 

I thought about how I love to read and research and process and share, like I’m doing with this post, with the knowledge or hope that it will resonate with others who recognize similar journeys or desires.

Immense gratitude washed over me. I already know these things. They’re embedded in my psyche. I engage with them every day. But it’s only when I allowed myself the focused time to mediate without distraction that the depth of, and the appreciation for these meaningful connections and communities took shape. 

I hope to continue this practice. Try it!