Just a Moment…
“Life consists only of moments, nothing more than that. So, if you make the moment matter, it all matters. ― Ellen Langer
Listening to a podcast featuring psychologist and author Ellen Langer this past weekend, I was struck by her thoughts on being present or mindful in each moment.
Langer spoke of the need to consciously choose to be present in each moment again and again in order to fully experience life; otherwise, we’re living mindlessly or on autopilot…not really living at all.
Of course there are benefits to making assumptions and expecting certain outcomes, so we free up our mind’s ability to “work” on new challenges. But Langer notes that most of us rarely engage with life as it is in the moment and wonder why we’re bored or unhappy.
“The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today.”
–Ellen Langer
Slowing down to pause to fully engage with the moment is a bit easier in the heat of the summer. Rather than dreaming of the fall and wishing today’s heatwave away, make a game of fully engaging with the possibilities available each moment. What are you missing by ignoring the present moment?
May you challenge yourself to be more present to what is than to what might happen. And may this lead to many moments filled with delight at all that life has to offer.
“The moment is not found by seeking it, but by ceasing to escape from it.” ―James Pierce
Famous
The river is famous to the fish.
The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.
The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.
The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.
The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.
The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.
The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.
I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.
—Naomi Shihab Nye, Words Under the Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye.
