Lately, I’ve been feeling emotional about my boys growing up. Time itself seems to be speeding by at a pace that feels uncomfortable to me. This amplified feeling of time speeding up has been brought about by me preparing for the fact that my oldest son will be entering into kindergarten this coming fall. I feel amazingly blessed by the fact that I have two healthy children that are growing and thriving. Yet the speed at which they are growing and changing is a bit hard for me to wrap my mind and heart around some days. Currently my boys are ages 2 and almost 5. Even at their still tender ages, I’ve been able to see them both go through so many changes and stages in just the short years they’ve been here. Life is so remarkable in this way. And while I find each stage to be precious and sacred, I find myself cautiously anticipating the next stage because I know that means that the people I currently know will inevitably be different in some ways or in lots of ways.
At times I’ll admit that I’ve had phases when I’ve found myself wishing we were in the next stage already, (as if the next stage will somehow provide more ease). Lately though I’ve been in a state of almost pre-mourning the loss of the current stage and the people they currently are while I’m still in it. Does that sound familiar to any parents out there? I’ve come to realize that neither of those ways of thinking are grounded in the present and both cause a sort of heart suffering feeling. I’ve discovered that when I can break away from the mind chatter and anticipation of what has not yet come to be, I then have the opportunity to be in the present in all its tangible glory. That’s when I’m here! When I allow myself to be in the now, that’s when none of the anticipation of loss or transition to one phase to the next matters because I have now and now is wonderful and they are wonderful NOW!
When I am in the now, I can truly marvel at every aspect of my children and the time we’re sharing. And when now becomes then (in the future), I won’t feel like I need to mourn the loss of the time I had with my 2 year old and 5 year old because I fully had them. I was fully and truly there. I was present then and I am present now too. Being in the now affords the ability to actually absorb every aspect of the moment and all the gifts and vibrancy that’s in the moment. When we allow ourselves to be fully in the moment with grateful open hearts, we need not mourn any loss of any moment in our lives. Because one of the gifts that being fully present offers is a full and complete ownership of our experience here. When we fully are in the moment, the moment becomes eternal. When we tap into the fact that now is eternal then nothing is ever past or present it just IS. Is always is. How’s that for a mind conundrum?
The trouble and suffering happens when we take ourselves out of the moment with either thought distractions or some other distractions. When we do that then the moment is lost on us and can’t be gotten back. The best thing we can do to lesson our suffering and enhance our life experience is to surrender to the moment by resisting distractions. Thoughts are distractions and so are other needless activities like scrolling through our phone or needlessly busying ourselves for the sake of mental escape. These needless distractions take us away from the blessings of what has been placed right in front of us. The power lays in the acknowledgment that where we are placed in any given moment is perfectly where we need to be. When we choose to commit over and over again to really be in the present, then our life becomes more rich and vibrant than we could possibly imagine. Committing to the present allows each moment to in essence last forever in our heart space because we’ve created an energetic ownership by fully being there for it. We own what we’ve really experienced. So dive into each moment in all it’s messy beautiful glory. And benefit from a life full of heart blessings that you own forever and that truly never go away. That’s what I plan to do. I plan to choose the now over and over again. Because life is too precious and blessed to not allow ourselves to fully receive every delicious drop of it.
Many blessings to you & yours,