Being in this moment

Deadlines loom everywhere, and I'm trying to very methodically chip away at them, one article or one task at a time. It's not working as well as I'd hoped...I feel like I'm behind the eight-ball with what I need to accomplish this next week, and I'm trying not to add anything else.

And yet I just spent 45 or so minutes swinging outside with Tony, enjoying a cool evening breeze (in July!!! in Red Bluff!!!) and watching the end of a lovely sunset. Weasley and Harry Potter both wanted on our laps and to be petted, which drove the indoor boys nuts, especially McMurphy. So we petted kitties -- a lovely way to spend a summer evening.

It's good to take time to appreciate where you are, what you have, who you are. It's good to give thanks for gifts of the earth and the spirit, and for new opportunities and beginnings. It's good to remember that despite our concerns (and frustrations) over the various life-issues that our children are going through, the Universe isn't done with them yet, and the choices they make are theirs, not ours, to live through.

Oh, we all make mistakes, don't we -- when we're young, when we're not so young -- and I sure hate to think of what would have happened to me if the Universe had been done with me at age 25 or 30! As we mature, I think our ability to look down the road at longer-range consequences improves, and then the challenge is not to get so bogged down in all the what-ifs that you can't make the choices!

I'm glad I'm not 25 or 30 anymore. I like where I am, mostly, and what I don't like I know how to improve (oh, will power, where DO you hide!)

Life can change forever in seconds, with an accident, an illness, a death, a birth, a word...I am reminded of that every day in some way, whether it is a phone call, an e-mail, a story in the paper, or simply remembering my own such life-changing seconds, many of them documented here.

It is a continuing challenge to cherish each moment, to be grateful for it, and to live in it. Each moment is all we really have. Watching the sunset and savoring the evening with my honey was the best thing I did today for me. May you savor your moments, too.