Breathing in the Moment



"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment". Buddha

Week 29

It’s been a tough few weeks.  My mother passed away after many years of illness. I was blessed to be at her side.  As my sisters and I gathered around her bed in her final hours we watched every single slow, arduous breath she took, inhaling and exhaling, inhaling and exhaling.  The ticking seconds began to hold a new value, every twitch of her finger, every flutter of an eyelid, and every tiny sound seemed to be magnified.  There was nothing else for us in those last few hours except to be in that room, together, at that very moment…with no escape…just living the present,  through our aches, our tears and our pain.

I must say there is no greater reminder to us of the gift of life, than it’s opposite…death…. and no greater reminder to us of our own destiny.

This year I am focusing on the precious gift of my time. And no matter what age we are, or what health conditions we may have, our time left on this earth is limited.

 I recently read an article that said most of us don’t spend much of our lives actually living it…. Instead we spend our time either ‘re-living’ our lives or ‘pre-living’ our lives. Some of us waste away  hours, filling them with regrets of what should of, would of, could of, happened in the past…if only.  Or ‘the good old days’ keep calling us back and we stay afloat by bobbing in the safe waters of yesterday.  Or we spend our time ‘pre-living’ our lives; organizing, fretting, planning, more fretting, trying to get prepared for our uncertain scary future.  And so, we find our days being filled with ‘re-living’ or ‘pre-living’… instead of  ‘living’.

 I love the quote above from Buddha, as it is such a reminder to me that the best way to spend my time is just by living it.  If  you think about it, when are mind is continuously ‘ re-living’ or ‘pre-living’ our lives, we are actually stealing away the precious moments/hours/days that we have been given.

Concentrating the mind on the present moment isn’t easy for me, is it for you? I’ve been reading a bit about meditation and the power that it holds to help a person relax while focusing  thoughts and the body on the ‘now’…. But I don’t think going through life in a meditative state is what I’m after…

It’s really about every day isn’t it, living an intentional, purposeful, life.  It’s taking time to stop and smell the roses or the lemon blossoms, the pine needles or the eucalyptus.  It’s pausing to watch the ladybug dance around the petunias, or the young lovers holding hands. It’s standing out in the rain and letting the raindrops fall on your tongue or the snowflakes float softly on your skin. It’s listening to the children giggling and the honey bee buzzing overhead in the palo verde tree. It’s making time to reach out to the elderly, the sick, or the lonely. It’s about sitting closer to your loved ones, and saying you love them more often.  It’s stopping to pray in the middle of the day when you find your thoughts on a friend. 

It’s being still….just being still.  Taking this very moment and breathing it in.

Small step: Less reliving of the past and pre-living the future...more living in the present