She was five, waiting outside for the bus to come take her to kindergarten. “Mom, do you smell that?”
“What do you smell?” her mother replied.
“Just an ordinary, awesome day!” she said. Just an ordinary, awesome day! How often do YOU smell that?
Contrast that with me the other day … intent on getting things done … knocking off one thing after another on my “to-do” list. I stopped at the gas station to get the tank filled, then went to the car wash to get rid of an accumulation of pollen and bird droppings. Then I was headed home to sit down and write.
To my horror, as I pulled out of the car wash, I looked in the driver’s side mirror and saw that – not only left the panel cover open – I had also left the gas cap dangling below. Yes … it was a car wash that had powerful jets of water, spraying detergent, wax and rinse water. How could I have possibly been so careless as to drive away from the gas pump, leaving the gas cap off and the panel open? Because I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing … I was paying attention to what I was going to do next!
I got home in a panic and desperately poured a bottle of a solution that is supposed to remove water from your gasoline, hoping I hadn’t done damage to my fuel system. Fortunately, it seems the treatment worked. I’ve gone through a couple of tanks of gas since with seemingly no problems.
I shudder to think what could have happened … all because I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing … all because I wasn’t truly present in the moment.
I now wonder what else I miss by not being in the moment … I suspect I miss a lot of the beauty of the world because, instead of soaking in the moment, I’m focused on things I need to be doing, or my mind is otherwise preoccupied.
We’ve all heard horror stories … like something as big as forgetting to pick up child after school or at Day Care … to something as little as putting a cup of coffee on the roof while you load the car, and then driving away … with your coffee spilling all over the roof. Have you ever put something in the microwave, only to open it several hours later and realize that your forgot that you put it there? I suspect we are all guilty of things like this at one occasion or another.
From time to time, life gives us reminders – sometimes gentle and sometimes dramatic – that life is better lived when we are fully present … in the moment … whether we are waiting for the bus or filling our gas tank.
We have an Inner Magnificence that wants us to have a joyful life … and it knows that the best strategy is for us to be completely in the moment, completely in the present… not ruminating over past grievances or mistakes … not thinking about what we need to be doing next … not distracting ourselves by multi-tasking … simply being fully present in … present in the moment … with all its sensations.
Here’s my invitation for today: Make a conscious decision that, whatever you are doing, you are going to pay attention to every detail; Step into your Splendor and immerse yourself fully in the present. Choose to savor every moment of this ordinary awesome day!
The extent to which you do is the extent to which you’ll be able to say, “I feel good about being me!”
Photo Credit: Bary R. Fleet
