Right Now

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34

Mother’s Day was this past Sunday. It was the conclusion of a great weekend that started on Friday with a surprise gift of a maid service from my husband. His gift came at the perfect time as I had been feeling dejected from the week and was not looking forward to cleaning, dusting or anything even remotely related to that! (But really, who does?) Saturday we traveled ‘home’ to spend the day with the kids and our mothers (and fathers) just relaxing and catching up. The change of scenery from our home outside of Dallas to East Texas was refreshing and more needed than I realized.  Sunday ended the weekend with a late lunch out after church. As crazy as it sounded, we managed the lunch out with no major catastrophes, no screaming kids, temper tantrums or strange looks from other diners — at least none that I saw. And through it all, I felt blessed… and rushed.

I must confess I have a bad habit of rushing through things. I know I’ve used the phrase “on to the next thing” more than once. I don’t know why I rush. But I do know that it provides me with no comfort (only anxiety), it doesn’t guarantee good results (usually I omit something in the process) and it stirs up commotion (when mama rushes, the whole house tends to get in a flurry). So maybe I should just stop? That seems easy to do, but hard to achieve.

Our Sunday lunch was at an Asian restaurant. As we finished our meal, they presented us with fortune cookies. I know, fortune cookies, are definitely not words you want to base your life on. They are typically general enough that they could apply to anyone, no matter their current life situation. But this one hit home for me. It said, ‘Your ability to live in the present moment will help you find pure bliss.’

Living in the present takes intentional effort. It actually takes work to block out all of the things you could be worried about and focus on what is happening at that moment. But once you do it, you begin to appreciate life even more. Even the small things, like making it through lunch at a restaurant with two small kids in tow.