My husband and I are sleeping in this morning. Well, I'm awake, but still in bed. For a while he was awake, while we had my parrot with us. Then I noticed something quite peaceful. I told my husband to pay attention to the sound in the room. For a number of seconds we were completely silent. The sound? Absolute silence. No cars, no birds (even my parrot made no sound), nothing! It was wonderful to savor.

Hubby has since fallen asleep again. Now I hear the sound of his breathing and an occasional light snore. I also hear my parrot, now in his cage, crunching his food. It's still peaceful. I have absolutely zero stress at this time. This says something about the value of mindfulness.