What we need is now

Every wise person I know or have read or listened to seems to say some version of this: We need to practice being in the present, accepting what is, and being grateful for it. It's the spiritual version of being local - Be Here Now. 

So, toward that end, I started a new discipline yesterday. Each time I hear my wrist watch chime, I stop whatever I am doing, take a deep breath and just look, and listen - and sometimes smell - what is right here. First thing this morning it was the sun shining from a window through the bannister onto the wood floor with dust motes dancing, the smell of breakfast John was making for the kids, the faint sound of a car alarm.  Later it was a tree-lined street, my feet on the sidewalk, the earbud wire attached to my arm, a man talking animatedly to his cell phone in his car. It's like taking a mental snapshot. We all have those in our heads and I have often wondered why my brain once captured that particular image and not another - my school shoes on the wooden stairs in 6th grade, a handful of snow sparkling in the sun, the back of my mom and dad's heads viewed from the backseat on a car trip.

Even if these more intentional snapshot don't linger, they are good. Stopping, breathing deeply, taking note of what is right here, right now; it seems to slow down time. And I see things I haven't seen before - like the house pictured above. Can you guess where it is?

*******

It's just across from the Gainesville Shopping Center (Publix) on busy North Main Street. I never saw it before.

Comments

[becky]

hope you don't mind... i paraphrased your post at our poetry discussion group at the library. it seemed the perfect connection to this poem by w.h.davies--
"Leisure"
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?-
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

A beautiful version of this can be found on youtube. (i'll try to link to it if i can find it.) accompanying the line about beauty dancing, the tree in the photo looks like a woman dancing, and i also loved how the poster included photos of animals accompanying the lines about eyes and then mouths smiling.

thanks for sharing this post. i too am often struck by how little i truly observe.

[becky]

here's the link: (i hope!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj99ItuLaWE