I took this photo at a winery in Tuscany. It was lunch time and the hosts seated us all at a long table with platters of local foods to start the celebration of our half way point. I was on a bike ride through the country side – the hills of Tuscany. How much better can life get?
I’m Italian and Italy calls frequently and I know it is my signal to once again take a real pause. Come out of my comfort zone, explore, reenergize, and renew. I seek, no I crave the time to embrace la dolce far niente.
It’s one of two of my favorite Italian phrases and translates to the sweetness of doing nothing. It’s the ultimate in mindfulness. It is in that pause of doing sweet nothing that my mind drives away all the worries, the stressors, the lists, the questions and allows my shoulders to drop, rest and rekindle with my authentic self, my powerful self - the power of being who I am and following my passion, my joy. It resurfaces in me that thirst to once again be comfortable in my own skin. And I pay attention only to the moment, the feelings, and the energy that is renewing.
It’s an opportunity to let my thoughts run free and inevitable I catch those moments of clarity that shows me the way. Those moments show me the greatness of all the experiences and knowledge that I have picked up along the way and those moments are the first strike in carving a refocused path. It focuses on what I am, who I am and what I truly enjoy. It’s easy to let go of the dark thoughts, the incorrect path I have embraced along the way - these are the paths that don’t resonate with my true self. I seek joy and that path is the light that emerges clearer and clearer in those sweet moments of doing nothing.
Piano piano I find myself re-emerging. Piano piano is my second most favoured phrase. It translate into slowly slowly or step by step but it is ever so softly done. So, ever so softly the mist floats away and the path emerges.
There is a quality to life in Italy that is supreme. It doesn’t matter which part of the country I travel to, that quality, the simplicity of being, the candor, the relaxing atmosphere - it is embedded in the people. Simply being amongst a crowd of people speaking the language takes me right back to those clean, clear moments of la dolce far niente.
I’ve gratefully spent a summer in those moments of la dolce far niente and piano piano am re-emerging. Stay tuned…..those moments provided clarity for the next chapter in the life of Loretta Biscaro Smith and it is piano piano with clear steps that we will reveal the next adventure and how you too can reinvent focused to your path.
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