Living in the moment...

We all talk about how we need to "live in the moment". I think though, that we "westeners" miss the mark. We're very good at verbalizing what we need and should be doing. But, the actual doing takes more doing than we allow ourselves. Some sure signs of not living in the moment are feelings of anxiety, worry, or stressed. What does it really take to be able to live in the moment? How is it that in this land of plenty and opportunity, we come with so many forms of anxiety and depression? How is it that so many poor people in India know how to be happy living in what we would call, "squalor"? I think it has to do with this concept of living in the moment. It is a balancing act; when you find that 'spot', there is no cruise control button to turn on. There is no magic pill. Here are my thoughts on some key ingredients for being able to live in the moment: 1-have no expectations 2-completely focus on the here and now in every sense (this one is perhaps the more complexed and layered of the key ingredients) 3-let go of the past (you can recognize it, but you must not hang on to it) 4-recognize the future, but keep it only in your peripheral vision 5-surrender to the moment and celebrate every detail present in the moment Items 2 and 5 are almost the same. There is so much that passes us by each day because we don't live in the moment. We are too busy rushing from one thing to another. Did you notice all the birds flying around today? What were they doing? Do you know what kind they are? When you were driving, did you see that Robin fly past your car with the worm hanging out of its mouth? How many of the flowers blooming did you pay heed to today? What were their colors? Were they in the beginning of their bloom, or about to be spent? What was the quality of the sunlight at 8 a.m. today? What was it at 4 p.m. today? How did it feel on your skin? How did your eyes drink it in? The art of being happy has so much to do with the art of living in the moment. The image presented here was a cactus plant by a swimming pool at my brother's home in Hawaii. The warm afternoon sun was hitting it just so; along with the gentle play of light from the pool, it presented a vignette that I could not pass up. I took the image on slide film in the summer of 2005. This week I took the slide and transposed it onto Polaroid SX-70 film and manipulated the image to get this painterly effect. By the way, I just found out this week when I used up the last of my SX-70 film that Polaroid stopped making the film earlier this year. I am greatly disappointed by this, but this will open up new chapters for me in image manipulations. No Photoshop adjustments were made to this image. The cactus plant by the pool is not something that most people would give notice to. I'm using it here to hopefully illustrate one of my points about living in the moment. It means paying attention to all that is around you and finding beauty in it and surrendering to that moment. Todays car tunes: George Michael "Faith" album and Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" (which also included "American in Paris" and "Lullaby Suite"). Track 1 on "Faith" is one that I crank the volume up full in the car. And, often I have to play it over again because it is that good (at least to me)!