A Fulfilling Life: A Fully Present Moment

 

It always seems that when I reach middle of the month I have repeated moments of shock—about how I cannot believe that the month is already half over.  There’s a sense of sadness in a way, that time is flying by, and that I want to slow things down, enjoy more, experience more great moments, and instead feel a sense of contentment when it is the 15th—as though there’s nothing I would change.

This morning I went outside for my morning ritual of “picking up” after my dogs.  And suddenly, my nose was awash with a most delicate and subtle blossom-y fragrance that I just wanted to breathe in all day.  It made me smile with the knowing that Spring is arriving and everything is waking up.  My self included.

In that moment it occurred to me, you can’t capture a scent—I mean you can make a perfume or a candle or bake some cookies that smell good, but I simply can’t capture that actual smell of early spring blossoms.  That amazing scent prompted me to get completely present and decide that rather than meditate inside on a cushion or eat breakfast or read a few pages in my kitchen I wanted to sit outside.  I wanted to keep breathing in that fresh, not-to-be-duplicated fragrance.  It was like the essence of life itself.

So I wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket with a scarf around my neck and sat outside in 40 degrees, with the morning sunshine on my face.  Eyes closed for a while.  Eyes open for a while laughing at my dogs who were insane with joy running around the yard as fast as they possibly could as if their lives depended on it, yet gleeful.  It was the first time in a while where I really felt time fall away.  Where I felt completely, utterly, present and content.  I almost got up and walked inside a few times, more from my internal fidget than a need to go do something else.  There was truly nowhere else I wanted to be in that moment.

And now mid-month, I suddenly feel a shift in my discovery.  It is clear to me that when I take time to sit still and experience a full sensory moment or 10 minutes or an hour, that I feel complete, connected, full.  I feel like time is moving at exactly the right pace and there is nothing I’m missing. It’s embarrassingly simply.  Sign me up.