In The Moment

I remember reading somewhere once that the best way to live your life is to be 'in the moment', and I remember struggling with what that concept meant. I think I got a window into what that means for me last night. I felt like just sitting in my backyard for a while, so I did. I took a chair outside, sat in it, and leaned back against my house. I sat there for about half an hour as the sun was going down. I watched the birds in the trees, the planes flying overhead, the occasional insect flying by.

I saw a baby mockingbird squawking for some food, and then the mother catching a moth and feeding it to the baby. I watched a hummingbird regard me warily and then decide that she wasn't hungry enough to eat with me watching. I watched a bumblebee clumsily fly into my house several times before flying away. I watched the trees turn into silhouettes against the setting sun. As I watched these things, there was no past, no future, no worries. There were just those moments. And it was very calming. I don't know how you can live your whole life that way, but maybe the more you have moments like these the more you can be open to finding them where you might not expect to. And that would be a good thing.