Living In The Moment

In the spirit of slowing down on this journey we call life, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about living in the moment. About how as long as we’re alive, we can tweak our daily actions to change what tomorrow and beyond looks like. We can change our mindset from surviving what life throws at us to creating the life we want.

Recently I found myself on a three hour road trip as a passenger in the backseat. There were three of us hunkering down in the back and I, the claustrophobic one, landed in the middle. I think it goes something like, the shortest in the party is the automatic volunteer.

While riding along, being squished and pondering what it looks like to live in the moment, I heard the 90 year old woman on my left reading every sign we passed. Every single sign. Out loud. Once I realized she wasn’t expecting a response back, I began to giggle, which made the seat situation a little more uncomfortable because we were packed in like sardines. Let me elaborate here. She was reading every sign. Every restaurant sign, every street sign, every storefront sign, every sign she could get her little eyes on. I thought we would have a bit of a reprieve when we hit the expressway but I forgot about the billboards. Every single billboard, out loud. She commented on the colors of the cars and how clean and shiny they were, made mention of how large the semi trucks were and asked what was on the back of flatbed trucks. And then we hit a long stretch of just blacktop lined with trees and she nodded off.

Every single sign. Out loud.

And then it hit me, this beautiful woman who I am very fond of was answering the very question in my far too goal oriented mind. She was living in the moment. She was soaking up every part of the day and all of the scenery (and words) around her.

I’ve lived most of my life in a big hurry with a constant need to quickly move on to the next thing. Basically, not enjoying the moment because of the pressure of my endless to do list. I know we can’t always choose our circumstances but we can choose our perspective. Listen, let’s not wait until we’re 90 to slow down, lift our eyes from our cell phones and take it all in. Just as a reminder, next time you’re caught at a red light or hit a stop sign, take a breath and read a street sign… out loud.

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