Staying In The Moment

I just saw an ad on TV for the brand new Windows Phone. It shows people tripping over one another, falling down stairs, and generally mis-stepping in hilarious ways. Everyone is so focused on their cell phones that they're not paying the least bit of attention to what is going on around them. What makes the ad so funny is that it's actually true! Everywhere you look these days, people are fiddling with their phones. Thankfully I'm not a phone-fiddler, but I used to be an e-mail junkie. Fortunately, I broke that habit when I realized that I was missing out on lots of wonderful and beautiful sights and sounds all around me because I was spending too much time in front of my computer. I vowed to become more mindful of how I was traveling through life. I did not want to miss a single minute.

All that being said, I do fall off the wagon now and then. I often feel like the little girl in the children's book, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, by Laura Joffe Numeroff. The little girl is tormented by a very challenging piglet whose never-ending wishes take them from kitchen table to bathtub to backyard, leaving everything in their wake a total mess. By days end, the poor little girl was exhausted. That is so me. For instance, I went to my closet to get a sweater and see that the hook that my pj's hang on is loose, so I went to fetch a screw driver. While I'm upstairs getting the screw driver I decide to put in a load of wash. When I go to put the laundry detergent in I spill a little, so I grab the paper towels and the next thing you know I'm wiping finger prints off the door frame and smudges from the window panes. It just goes on and on until I've totally forgotten about fixing the hook in my closet. I go back downstairs and the hook still hangs askew. I lost my focus.

So, if you feel side-tracked by your phone, or your chores, or a pig that wants a pancake for that matter, it's okay - we've all been there. Next time, try to be more mindful - that's all you can do, really. Be thankful for the life you're living, try to find ways to appreciate your surroundings and the people you care about and when it happens the next time, laugh about it and move on.