Mindful Living

Mindful Living (A short excerpt from my forthcoming book)

Being Aware of the Magic that Sounds You

Life is full of so many amazing things, but we are often so consumed with what is going wrong with our lives that we are blind to the beauty. I am convinced that most of us spend our lives walking around asleep, unable to absorb the magic that surrounds us.

I remember when I used to push my daughter and my son around the neighborhood in their stroller when they were babies. They couldn’t speak, but I would talk to them. I would push them down the street and identify things as they looked around in complete amazement. I would point out the tall green pine trees towering up toward a crystal clear blue sky. I would follow their eyes as they glanced up at the beauty. I remember my son reaching for a small yellow butterfly as it flitted in front of his sweet little face. Everything we passed, I would name. “See the doggie? Isn’t she pretty?” My children would smile. I would smile. What wonderful memories … me, my babies, and nature.

When they were a few years older, they would point things out to me. I remember the first time my daughter saw a snowflake. She was mesmerized. “Snow,” she shouted as she examined the intricacies of an individual snowflake. I remember my son saying, “Look, Mommy! It’s a buddy-tie,” as a butterfly flew by. I can still hear his cute little voice, see the wonder in his eyes, and see the smile on his face. Precious. During one walk when my daughter was three, she told me that she loved trees because they gave us oxygen—a little trivia her dad had just taught her. On another walk, she told me about the life cycle of the cicada just before looking up at the clouds and naming animals they resembled. Oh, the magic.

Today, things are a little bit more hectic. My children are now teenagers, and we rarely take the time to appreciate the magic that surrounds us. We are all so busy. There are practices to attend, schoolwork to complete, social relationships to nurture. While we must appreciate these things too, the magic that lives right outside our window is sometimes overlooked—forgotten temporarily. Sometimes we are just so busy that the moment is lost. If we just open our eyes and notice the things that surround us … notice as small children notice. I just know that we are missing so much.

Our worries, our concerns, and our frustrations often create a thick fog preventing us from seeing life’s treasures. We worry about things that may not matter next year, next month, or even next week. We get consumed in the muck, causing us to close out so many good things in life. It takes awareness and focus to let life in. It takes a conscious effort to see the magnificent things that have been there all along.

Let’s open our eyes because life is too short to …

• dwell on what we do not have.
• neglect to tell those we love that we love them.
• spend time ruminating on the past.
• find things to criticize rather than find things to praise.
• focus on times when we have been wronged rather than remember when things have gone right.
• overlook nature’s beauty.
• carry a chip on our shoulder and miss the good that surrounds us.
• discount our strengths. We all have them. Where is our focus?
• worry so much about the future that we miss the promise of today.
• hold grudges. Holding a grudge means staying in prison. Be free.

Are you shutting out the goodness in life, or are you opening your eyes to the wonderful things that surround you? Have grief and sorrow masked the beauty? What is it that you are neglecting to see? As you move through the day, be mindful of the moment. Go find something good in your day.

To check out what people are saying about the forthcoming book The Snowball Effect: How to Build Positive Momentum in Your Life, click this link.