Be in the Moment, Live for the Future

There is a bit of wisdom I arrived at that continues to grow more relevant with time: Live as if you will reach one hundred years old while at the exact same time living like today could be your last.

A friend's son recently went missing. After she called the police, an alert was put out and the search began. Thankfully within a day two officers found him and he was reunited with his family. Such an amazing outcome for such a horrific experience that I cannot imagine having to go through. It puts this whole life journey that we are all on into perspective.

Simply put, we do not know when our last breath or the last breath of ours loved ones will be. I do not say this as a pessimist. In fact it impresses on me the importance of being an optimist. It drives me to wake up each day and accomplish all the things that I need to get done so that I can build the life that I want; so that I can set my future self up for success and happiness. With however vital the "daily doing" is for our lives, I'm sure we have all felt at some point the balance tip where we are spending so much energy looking forward that we miss being present for what is right in front of us.

This is where the second half comes into play: every day I need to practice being in the moment. This can look so many different ways. It might be giving my Shazzy an extra long hug on the way out the door. It could be catching myself in a moment of anger and calming back down. Or as with the picture I've chosen to illustrate this writing, it could most definitely be leaving the distractions behind and getting out into the sublime beauty of nature. Friends let's get out there and get done what we need to get done to to build an awesome future to live into, but while we are doing this let's remember to create intimacy, success, happiness, accomplishment and peace right here and now.

All my love,

James