Find connection - and healing through this guided meditation led by Julie Potiker. She completes the meditation with her poem, "I Am Noticing".

I Am Noticing, by Julie Potiker.

I am noticing everything all at once, all the time, so much so that some things lay down on top of others.

Last night, sitting in the courtyard after dinner, listening to what my husband was saying, hearing his words and the tone and timber of his voice, I was struck by the tempo of the crickets – 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4, doing 4-4 time quite deliberately and consistently as a metronome.

Meanwhile, the two big dogs lay on the faded, terra-cotta tiles and slept with breath in 1-4 time, big breath in, then beat beat beat, big breath out.

Madeline on her side, her big belly shaved at the vet that morning, rising and falling like a bellows. Eloise, 4 feet away, snout on the ground, snoring in 1-4 time.

When I mentioned it, my husband said, he never would have noticed it, but now that he did, the crickets remind him of his childhood in the Midwest outside of Detroit. Yes, I said, Cleveland, too, but in those places, we would have fireflies. I wish we had fireflies too.

Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.

Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.com

This podcast is available on iTunes, iHeart, Blubrry and everywhere you listen to podcasts.