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Rhythms of Sustaining · Living & Learning with Aundria McMillan Humphrey

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning and welcome back to Living & Learning with Aundria McMillan Humphrey.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is episode 32, Rhythms of Sustaining.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've been noticing lately just how quickly life moves.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: One week rolls into another.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sunday arrives and I wonder what happened to Wednesday.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Then Monday is knocking on the door before I've quite finished with Sunday.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, Beneath all of that movement, there is something steady.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Rhythm.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Think of a heartbeat.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Think of a sunrise.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Think of the steady drumbeat that carries a song forward.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: There are rhythms that carry us too.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm beginning to understand that sustaining ourselves isn't necessarily
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: about striving harder,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: organizing better, Or somehow squeezing more into our already full lives.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes sustaining ourselves is simply about returning.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Returning again and again to what nourishes us.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: In my own life, I have rhythms I hardly think about anymore.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sunday comes and I write my Slow Down Granny article.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I record this podcast.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: On Wednesdays, I write my Substack article and publish it.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I gather with the women of the Ageless Living Circle each week.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I dance.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I Tai Chi walk.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I play my Native American flute.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And now there's a Cora sitting in my home inviting me to practice what I learned
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: in my last lesson.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Which I may or may not actually remember.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I simply pick it up and play anyway.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I've realized something about all of these things.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: They aren't just tasks on my calendar.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: They are rhythms that sustain me.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: There is a difference.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: A schedule tells me what I'm supposed to do.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: A rhythm helps me remember who I am.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I like that distinction.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because we hear so much about habits and routines and discipline.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're told to establish good habits, stick with them, be consistent, stay on track.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And those things can certainly be useful.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: But sustaining rhythms feel different to me.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're not about turning our lives into perfectly organized machines.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Rhythm is not rigidity.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Music teaches us that.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: A rhythm can speed up,
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: it can slow down, it can change, and there are rests written right into the music.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Life has rests too.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes what sustains me is getting up and moving my body.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's writing, sometimes it's music, sometimes It's being with other people.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's sitting quietly and noticing what's happening around me.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I love being in my hammock for that.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes what sustains me is recognizing that I have done enough for one day and stopping.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of the rhythm too.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: We don't fail because we miss a morning walk.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Or skip a practice or abandon what we planned because something unexpected
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: and perhaps even more wonderful appears, we simply return.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And perhaps that's the heart of what I've been thinking about.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: A sustaining ritual is something we return to that returns us to ourselves.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a moment.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: What do you return to that returns you to yourself?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's walking,
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: gardening, prayer,
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: music, writing, cooking, calling someone you love, sitting in the morning sun.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's something so ordinary that you've never even thought to call it a ritual.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And perhaps these ordinary practices matter more than we realize.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because so much of becoming happens this way,
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: not through dramatic reinvention,
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: not through one enormous decision that suddenly changes everything,
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: but through small acts repeated over time.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: We show up, we pay attention, we practice, we rest.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: We begin again.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the rhythm carries us.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps that's one of the gifts of growing older.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: We begin to understand that we don't have to race toward the person we're becoming.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's no finish line anyway.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're still becoming.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of asking yourself today, what should I be doing?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe ask a different question.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: What sustains me?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: What brings me back to myself?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: What are the rhythms already woven through my life that nourish me,
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: steady me, delight me, connect me?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Notice them, honor them, and return to them.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because sustaining is less about achievement and more about rhythm.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Step by step, breath by breath, Rhythm by rhythm.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Becoming isn't a sprint.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's a dance.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the wisest thing we can do is stop trying so hard to get somewhere
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: and listen for the rhythm that has been carrying us all along.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now may your rhythms sustain you this week.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Living & Learning with Aundria McMillan Humphrey.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for spending this time with me.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I will be here again next Monday and look forward to having you here with me.