Presence

I was reminded today that life is short and that we too often work - or wish - away our time here. It isn't always that we want time to go faster; sometimes we are so caught up in the moment and still not present in it. We are caught in the stuff and not in the living.

There are those who would say animals are less encumbered by higher-level thinking and that is why they live in the moment. More and more research proves just how highly intelligent animals are, proving what those who live with animals have always known. But, somehow, animals simply do not seemed concerned about much outside what is happening RIGHT. NOW.

It is cold and windy again today, but the sun is shining. I took a short drive at lunch and just let the warmth of the sun touch my skin. I thought about those whose paths I once considered lined with gold and how their journeys are not without some pretty wicked twists and turns. I thought of how all the dogs I am blessed to know are present in each and every moment, whether chasing a ball or chewing up the sandstone in the backyard. (ugh!)

Each of us in given a gift. So many gifts - life, love, laughter - maybe not in the amount or the time frame we would wish, but it truly is there for the asking and for the taking. But we do have to take that gift, accept it, for the presence and the present to be ours.