I love the feeling of getting something done. It has a particular physical buzz: lightness in the top of my head, clarity in my spine, fullness and strength in my arms. I feel it now as I write. Evidence of someone reading this piece will initiate a fluttering in my whole body, like butterflies and currents of energy. When I’m getting something worldly done I feel the container of my body. I feel a sense of rhythm, an experience of my self in time that I enjoy. It’s grounding.

Yesterday I came to my senses while deleting emails on my phone. I have thousands of unread messages, infinite satisfaction producing material. Somehow each delete gives me a tiny rush. I looked down to find my 6 month old staring at me from her carrier, adoring me, studying me, appreciating me. Feeling me.

When I gaze at my children, or watch them play, or listen to the ever changing quality of their voices, or feel the growing substance of their bodies, I feel boundless, an expanse of energy that is slow moving and thick. The lone rhythm is a sweet clear tick in my chest. My flesh is soft and softening. My feet feel dense and my skin feels thin, but strong and stretchy. The satisfaction is deep and I’m insatiable.

If you like how it feels to get things done, study that feeling. Learn how to let it in in small doses. You don’t need a reminder to find pleasure in the details of your babies and children, but know that the satisfaction may resonate differently from that of your day to day or your life before children. The reward systems are on a different timeline. It’s all available to you, to enhance your days and your life. May you deepen your capacity for pleasure in all its forms and frequencies.