Being present . . .

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"Do not delay; the golden moments fly!"
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We were watching an episode of The Golden Girls last night via DVD. It began with them cleaning up after a party. Sophia (Dorothy's mother) was picking away at all the food which was leftover on the tables. She had prepared it all, and it had been a wonderful repast. Everyone was going on about just how delicious it had all been as they cleaned up and about how much work she had put into all the preparations. Soon Sophia was sitting down and complaining of having a bubble in her chest that wouldn't budge. Next thing you know, the girls were all thinking she was having a heart attack and she was made to lie down while they waited for the Paramedics and Doctor to arrive. Sophia lay there, thinking she was going to die and all the things she hadn't said to her daughter that she wanted to say, and she said them . . . and the other's were nostalgic as well . . . it was very touching. Turned out at the end though, that all Sophia had was . . . indigestion.

It got me to thinking though . . . last autumn, when I thought I might have cancer, I thought about all the things I still wanted to do . . . the words I still wanted to say . . . the places I wanted to go . . . the hearts I wanted to heal. I started a journal, where I began to write my life story in it . . . to leave for my children, so to speak. I sat down and wrote letters to all of my children, with special messages in them, just for them and tucked them away for the right time . . . I did a whole host of other things. It took the threat of leaving, of me losing all that I held so precious . . . for me to sit down and communicate all the things that I wanted to say . . . to think about the things I still wanted to do, etc.

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"Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized."
~Leo Buscaglia

It shouldn't be that way really. We should say and do and experience all that we want to do, say and experience right in the here and the now. We should not need the threat of our impending doom to bring it about . . . or the threat of loss. None of us knows for sure when our lives will end. Some will have a pretty good idea if they contract a terminal illness, but others will pass on suddenly, with no warning . . . and if they haven't done so already . . . leaving their songs unsung . . .



When I thought that I might not have a lot of time left on this earth, everything became so much sweeter, as if that were possible. I am a person that tries to find all the joy in most things anyways . . . but I can remember just standing in the front garden and closing my eyes one day . . . and smelling the sweetness in the air, feeling the wind brush across my cheeks and drinking it all in. The thought of me passing without the people who mean the most to me in this life knowing how I felt about them was unimaginable . . . and I wanted to tell them all how I felt . . . and now, not tomorrow . . . or in some unimaginable time in the future. Life became more precious to me than it had ever been . . . and I learned a huge lesson.

Each moment is a golden moment to me now. I take nothing for granted . . . not my feelings, not my experiences, not my family, nor my friends, nor any of the other blessings I so enjoy in my life . . . NOW.

Life is far too short not to be P-R-E-S-E-N-T!!

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"The only way to live is to accept each minute as an unrepeatable miracle, which is exactly what it is . . . a miracle and unrepeatable."
~Margaret Storm Jameson

Follow the promptings of your heart now. Say all the things you want to say now. Do and experience all that you want to experience now. Reach out now. Forgive now. Live life not in fear, but in expectancy. In short . . . LIVE . . . now, and take each moment for the gift that they are.

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Oh, but we did enjoy the film yesterday! (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, for the aging and the beautiful) It was just fabulous! We laughed, we cried and we felt everything in between. It was just wonderful. I don't think Todd was so sure when we went that it was going to be a film for him . . . but he thoroughly enjoyed it as did I. I hope you'll go and see it if you can.

Happy Wednesday everyone. Hope your day is as special as you are. Remember . . . you are loved beyond measure.



Cooking in The English Kitchen today, Cherry Bakewell Breakfast Oats.