Join Julie Potiker as she leads you through this guided meditation where you will use your breath to relax - and focus on what it is you need right now. She completes the meditation with the poem, "Rose-Breasted", by Kai Coggin, from the book, "Mother of Other Kingdoms, poems by Kai Coggin".

"Rose-Breasted", by Kai Coggin

(for Pheucticus Iudovicianus)

To be rose-breastedmp

as in the grosbeak that graced

the feeder today on my lunch breath,

me, in my teaching clothes, bright red beret,

black shirt buttoned to my neck covered in roses,

somehow a reflection before this auspicious landing.

I sit on the bed with my shoes on because I have to leave again soon--

my wife has been sneezing and coughing, so I brought her a pharmacy run

of cough drops allergy meds Kleenex, and from bed she's been watching

the spring migration landing outside our bedroom window.

I bring both our binoculars to bed and for a moment here we are,

lunch-break lovebirds peering close and hopeful, and there!

A sudden flash of black white and roses - he lands!

A rare vibrant specimen, gorgeous Rose-breasted Grosbeak,

his feathers

red like summer tomatoes

red like fire-engine cry

a red blazing sunrise cutting through the sky

and I've been teaching simile and metaphor all morning

to fourth-graders at the school down the road,

so all I see are figurative languages in the way he perches there--

a rose blooming in mid air,

the roses on my shirt,

the roses in my heart rising,

rose-breasted chest bested only

by this flying mirrored birdsong

quiet flutter

feeding on seeds during my lunch-break

our binoculars glinting in the noonday sun.

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.