“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” ~Henry David Thoreau
Life today seems to make it impossible for me, for us, to live in the moment. The blissful present moment, fully engrossed in one task at a time….in the flow of life wherever it is taking us. Stress, too little time, too much time, problems, traffic, long lines, deadlines, other people’s schedules, multi-tasking….on and on and on!
I promised myself, when I retired, I would get off the whirling-dervish craziness of my life as it was making me stressed and unhappy. And I would say I am making great progress, as I carve out a new life, a new schedule, new habits. But it is never easy to let go of the life that overtakes us.
I long for the blissful ease I know is possible, and was presented with a reminder and opportunity several months ago when on a trip to California. My brother moved an hour south of LA, and extended an invitation to visit. It was an area I had never been to near San Juan Capistrano. A 10,000 acre ranch converted to a new housing development built along and between the hills with a glimpse of the ocean.
We walked the paths built all along the hills, daily, looking at the amazing plant life. Lost in the moment. And because I was enjoying the moment, as we walked, I heard a familiar sound. One that had been lost to my brother as he seldom has time to walk leisurely.
I asked him if he had seen the hummingbirds that were all around. He was surprised as he had not seen them. I explained that if he just walked slowly along the sidewalk, near the orange trumpet flowers, he would see them….many of them. They were everywhere, the Anna hummingbirds. Such a delight. We enjoyed their daily antics and company.
Now I don’t know about you, but I feel a trip to California is wasted if I can’t visit the ocean. It is my special place. A place where I feel at home. And when I visit, I am called home. I wrote a poem that I published on my other blog called, Born of Water. It explains how I feel about the ocean.
The ocean is the perfect place to contemplate life, to get lost in the moment, to meditate and just be. It is my dream to live close to the ocean again, as I know I must have in some other life. It was a blissful visit that I will share with you in another post. For now I leave you with these few words from my poem.
Do you have a special place you enjoy visiting? Where you are called home.
A Floating Vase
With one bloom of Hippeastrum ‘Cocktail’, and the pink trimmed Hippeastrum blooms of ‘Zombie’ just flowering, I wanted to fill a bowl of these blooms.
Aren’t they gorgeous.
I moved them around to see how they looked in different spots in the house.
I really am loving ‘Zombie’, and I can’t get over how long these blooms are lasting.
I am joining Cathy@Rambling in the Garden for her wonderful In A Vase on Monday meme. The pictures shared here were created with my iPod Touch camera and two free apps, Pixlr and Prisma.
Next week I will be speaking with another wonderful blogger as I continue with another interview post in my series, Meet The Blogger. I hope you will stop by for what is always an interesting conversation.
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