celebrating life.

Lucky for me I work two blocks from the water and a lovely, memory-filled park. So for lunch I grabbed a plastic fork from the kitchen, my container of fresh fruit and headed for the water. The smell of fresh cut grass filled my lungs for the first time this year and the park was spotted with picnic blankets. I was excited to delve into my new book (one of about six that I am currently reading). I set the alarm on my phone so that I could really get into it without worrying about the time. I was feeling pretty good...until I was about two pages into the first chapter.

Here she talks about how she spent most of her life waiting for the best part of her life to begin, but in doing so her life was passing her by. This I could relate to and it is something that I have written about before - living in the present moment. But as I continued reading her take on 'today' I started to get down. "I believe that this way of living, this focus on the present, the daily, the tangible, this intense concentration not on the news headlines but on the flowers growing in your garden, the children growing in your own home, this way of living has the potential to open up the heavens, to yield a glittering handful of diamonds where a second ago there was coal." I stopped here because I had taken it all too literally. I was hoping that she would point out the potential in my own life right at that moment. I have no garden. I am not married and children are a ways off. I at first let self pity sink in and thought, well, yeah... I too could find glittering diamonds if I hadn't just spent my entire morning in a windowless box coated in the glow of my computer screen [only to return there in twenty minutes and spend the rest of my afternoon in that very same box]. And just at that moment a surprisingly cool breeze made me shiver and I looked up.

The sun was reflecting on the water so that it was sparkling, as if thousands of fireflies had just landed on its surface. It was mesmerizingly beautiful. The trees lining the bank are all blooming such beautiful white flowers that they seemed to be showing them off as their branches danced in the wind. A bird on a branch just above my bench started singing such a startling crystal clear song that it seemed like it was directed right at me. I took a deep breath and realized that this was exactly what she was talking about. "Today, humble Today, presents itself to us with all the ceremony and bling of a glittering diamond ring."

But you have to stop and notice it. You cant let your own self-awareness cloud over it.

"But this is what I'm finding, in glimpses and flashes: this is it. This is it, in the best possible way. That thing I'm waiting for, that adventure, that movie-score-worthy experience unfolding gracefully. This is it. Normal, daily life ticking by on our streets and sidewalks, in our houses and apartments, in our beds and at our dinner tables, in our dreams and prayers and fights and secrets - this pedestrian life is the most precious thing..."

I am so thankful and happy for today. Just today for now.