In the moment

 

 

Last week I read a post on one of my favorite blogs about living in the moment and at the same time looking forward. I've been thinking about it ever since and have been trying to get my thoughts together to write my own post on this.

I'm really big on looking forward. So much so that I often miss the immediate here and now. I've always been this way. As a child, I had to know what was going to happen next and after that and after that and...well you get the idea.

As I get older I seem to be getting worse. And at no time is it more apparent than in the summer. Summers in the south can be an evil thing. Temps. and humidity combine day after day to give a heat index hovering at 100. The air shimmers with heat, all the plants wilt in the mid-day sauna, and all I can do is sit inside under the AC counting the days until the most malevolent (at least to me) of seasons is just a sweaty memory. You would think the gardener in me would be wallowing in the verdant promise of everything I sowed in the blush of springtime. The very act of planting anything is the epitomy of looking forward. Tomatoes planted in April won't give up their gifts until July. Likewise for anything else you plant.

But this summer I am trying very hard to live in the moment even as I tend my garden and look forward as I do so. I even managed to enjoy the cicadias as they droned on and on for weeks and because I really listened this year, I was able to distinguish their last buzzings as they completed the noisey stage in their life cycle. I am taking note of when certain insects appear and writing it down for next year. (See I just can't help myself). I sit outside late at night and really enjoy the fireflies as I enhale the perfume from my Petunias and the Basil as a warm breeze brings the scent to my nose. It does seem to be working. I can't believe July is this week. Let's see, that means only about 10 more weeks til Autumn right?