P is for Present

Me, happy to be here

As in, I am here. I am present. I am in the now, not the later or the already-has-been. I am present right here and joyfully aware of being happy at this particular moment in time. My life is good. My family is all in good health (most anyway and I’m praying hard for those in need) and they're happy to be where they are.

Is there more to ask of life than that? I ask myself this a lot when I find myself whining about something; not enough written today, my stomach hurts, my book hasn't hit the best seller list (yet), my daughter isn’t doing what I want her to do, my son isn’t making enough money, blah, blah, blah. These things are all words with no real meaning. What is meaningful is being present here and now, and both of my kids are fully present in what they have chosen for life at this time and so am I so why complain?

This is really the only place I can be right now in this world. If I’m not happy with where I am that is my own fault. My mum and step dad once told my husband and me (when we were whining about where we were in the world) that if we couldn’t be happy where we were, at that moment in time, we wouldn’t be happy anywhere else because we would still be who we are. We would still be living with ourselves.

It was amazing to wake up to the meaning of their words and put into practice some fixes to our situation. The fixes worked and we were astounded to find ourselves happy and living a really good life! Not that much had changed, only our attitude really, but it worked.

Present, as in to be. It’s up to you. Try it. See what you think.
If you’re brave enough to listen to your "now," you'll see it’s not always as hard as you think it will be to enjoy it. I'm still learning to listen and to apply what I hear; to not whine (too much!). Because really when it all shakes out, I want to be happy and successful, whatever, wherever and however that ends up being. Meanwhile, I'm here, as in present.