How living in the moment frees us
“You can’t live tomorrow today. You can’t live yesterday today. You can only live today’s day. This is just my way of saying we need to learn to live in the present moment. It’s really the only one we’ve got. Nothing you haven’t heard before, right? Here’s my day of living in the moment and not anticipating the next.
I’ve been outside in my gardens most of the day (No, these are not my gardens. I wish.) I’m always surprised at how I can lose myself when I’m playing in the dirt. I’m sure most of you have heard the word “flow”. It means when you’re so absorbed in what you’re doing, time loses meaning. Hours can pass unnoticed ’till something jars you back to reality. That’s what playing in my garden does for me. I need a lot of “flow” now.
Somehow a spring day feels like a gift from above, my roses tease me with their tiny buds, green stalks bursting out of the earth almost overnight. My gardens are just coming to life now but in another couple of weeks, everything lurking underground will be up and flourishing with barely an open spot. I like the feeling of anticipation of not knowing what my gardens will look like. I forget from year to year what’s lurking beneath the dirt.
My gardens are always evolving. The winds have scattered seed heads and when the flowers spring up they will surprise me in their new home. Underground spreaders are building highways underground and they, too, will shoot up willy-nilly where they will. It’s like a surprise gift I get to open all summer.
I think of my life and how my garden sometimes echoes how I feel. Sometimes I feel like I’m pushing through dirt and can barely breathe. Other times I feel like I’ve broken through some unknown barrier and I’m breathing freely and deeply. I sway in the breeze feeling light and carefree. Today that’s how I felt. I was able to enjoy every moment without thinking about anything other than what I was doing.
It feels good to give ourselves some breathing room.
We all need breathing room. It’s amazing how our perspective can improve if we just take the time to step away from a situation. Not so we can think more about it, but so we can’t. we don’t have to spend every minute trying to figure things out.
Maybe the very act of taking a “thinking” break, lets us think more clearly.
We can overthink almost everything. There’s comes a moment where worrying about something makes our thinking unproductive. We are too caught up in the process. Our thoughts are all over the place. Purposely putting things on hold and doing something different is about the most productive thing we can do.
Today was an ordinary day but I got to live it an extraordinary fashion. Don’t we wish everyday could be like that? But I’m well aware that even though my day was spectacular, others were not so lucky. The clouds have moved from over my head. They’ll be back but for today I’m just going to be grateful.
God bless and have a good day.
