Saturday, July 28, 2012

Clear and Present

We are rapidly approaching the summer doldrums. Jack's summer school is a distant memory, but the first days of school are still far off, wavering like a mirage in the desert heat. We have planned for these endless, end-of-summer weeks by taking some of Jeff's vacation time so that he may be around to help with the wrangling of children.

The past week was one of these delicious periods when we've managed to shake up the routine a bit and steal ourselves a bit of peaceful time away, both alone and together. Jeff seized a chance to go fly-fishing for a day, and when he returned, I sneaked away for a long afternoon to myself.

I feel that the past week of my life has contained an embarrassment of riches. Because, you see, after my lovely day out and about, Jeff and I left for another long-planned mini-break which serves the dual purposes of a) celebrating our fifteenth year of marriage, and b) keeping us mentally healthy for the month of August.

We stayed the night in a historic hotel downtown, which was completely charming. We dined al fresco at various beautiful venues for every single meal. We visited with old friends. We drank homemade horchata on my sister's quaint old-timey porch. We went to three movies in a twenty-four hour period. We slept late. And we spent a fair amount of time just sitting together enjoying unhurried conversation. We soaked it up, this peaceful, quiet time.

Sigh.

I feel slightly more ready now to face the next few weeks of busyness. Not entirely ready, but a bit more.

As I was sitting in a quiet place on my solitary day away this week, I had this recurring thought: now is a good time to focus my energies on the problems at hand, instead of fretting over what the problems may be like at some point in the future.

This little epiphany perhaps might seem rather elementary to most, but to me it was a pleasant realization that I can stop pushing my figurative heavily-laden wheelbarrow of worries about the future. Instead, I can park that bad boy someplace out of the way and get to work addressing only my current challenges.

It feels more manageable to simply focus on now.

Yesterday is history
Tomorrow is a mystery.
But today is a gift--
That is why it is called the present.

(Name that movie!)

1 comment:

  1. I don't know what movie that quote is from (sounds familiar though)....but I love it!!! I feel so lucky that I got to see you while you were out and about this week! It was truly a happy moment to get some face time with you! :)

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