Moment of Joy 6/Infinity – Be In The Moment You Are Given

(Editor’s note: Every time you see the words “you” or “we” in the following post, insert the word “I”. Because I am writing to myself as much as to anyone else.)

Yes, I know. I stopped blogging. After the year’s challenge, the rest seemed…forced. No matter my good intentions or good ideas, the words weren’t coming. So I let it go. I figured you would understand. Plus, you didn’t want to read drivel.

But recently, I was challenged to write one more post. So here goes…

When I wrote regularly, I had several rules for myself. One was not to repeat the same theme from any given day. I did pretty well with that.

The other was that I typically wrote at the end of the day, and not the beginning. The reason for this originally was that I wanted to gather the whole day’s events before reflecting. Seems logical. But there was an unintended consequence. Frequently, as I went through the day, the speculative subject of my thanks would float around in my head, waiting to be written. (One of the benefits of thankfulness is that when you go looking for it, you find more of it.) And so I would think early in the day that I knew what I was going to post by the end of the day when I sat down with my computer. But frequently, and today included, it morphed.

“What would you write today?”
“I would probably write something on being careful about your wishes.”

Guess what? That’s not what I’m writing about. 😉

 

I believe that if you can step back from the details of your life and look with some perspective, you will start to see themes emerging. Hell, an entire profession has been created to help people do just that. (Thank you, therapy.) So today, as I was stepping back and listening to the world around me, I began to hear a clear and constant theme, one that has been discussed by me with several different people over the course of the last week. Staying in the moment.

Is it cliche? Possibly. Has it been beaten to death with Facebook memes and yoga mantras? Perhaps. So why, why, why are we so bad at it?

Because we are protecting ourselves. Because of ghosts from the past. Because we’re not sure if we can stand even one more piece of a broken heart.

But guess what? It doesn’t matter. You can worry and plan and cry yourself to sleep over the potential outcome of any given situation, and I would bet it rarely if ever matters one stinking bit. The future will get here, either the good one or the bad one. And you will get up and deal with it, exactly as you did all the other futures that are now in your past. Your track record is good. You’re still here.

So why waste one blazing second worrying about what comes next? If this moment is so spectacular that you absolutely don’t want to lose it, why on earth would you give it away?

Now, if the moment you are in is not so hot right now, I will give you a pass on the future planning. Go right ahead and do something that will catapult you back into some good new days. But more often than not, the things we worry about are far more disparaging than the things going on around us at this very second.

So be in your moment. It was given to you for a reason. Because you deserve it. Because that happy look on your face was a long time coming. Because joy is a gift you should receive with humility.

Today I am thankful for being given this moment of joy. I shall not waste it.

 

 

(Post Editor’s Note: I reserve the right to post to this blog whenever I darn well feel like it, from now on.)